Deathbringers
by Velkan The Impaler
Summary: Sam and Tucker are mysteriously murdered, and Danny's out for revenge. But his personal quest will eventually turn into a much bigger adventure that holds the fate of him and his loved ones in the balance. Please R
1. Chapter 1

Hey everybody. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys have for it. As anyone who's read any of my stories before knows, reviews give me motivation to continue, so I can never get enough of them. If you don't like my story, please don't be afraid to tell me so I can fix it in the future.

Just one thing to NOT put in a review: please do _not_ tell me what to change about the plot, a new character to add, or anything else that would change the course of the story at all. I have this entire story outlined, meaning I know how many chapters this story will have and everything that's going to happen in each and every single one of those chapters, and nothing you say will convince me to change what I've planned.

Enough of that. So, without further adieu, The Deathbringers.

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"Come on, Tucker! Sam!" yelled the black haired boy as he sat in the food court at the mall. He was sitting on a solid bench right in front of the food court, which was adjacent to the movie theater. "Where are you guys?"

"Ugh…Tucker waited until the last minute to start on his project…again!" Sam, the boy's friend, said into the phone.

"Hey!" Tucker (another of the boy's friends) yelled in the background. "I didn't wait until the last minute! These are just some last minute changes. And besides, this isn't just any old project. This is for the science fair, and I'm more determined than ever to walk away with first place this year!"

"Just like you were last year when you tried to find a cure for ingesting rat poison with iced tea and battery acid?" Sam asked.

"I'm telling you, that was supposed to work according to my calculations. Besides, this time, I'm working on a voice distorter. Nothing beats a voice distorter. Nothing! You hear me, Danny?"

Danny, the black haired boy, just sighed as he slumped into his chair. "Whatever you say. Just please hurry up and get that done? The movie is starting in thirty minutes and you know how much I like seeing the very, very beginning."

"Yeah, yeah," Tucker said into the phone. "Don't worry about it, I'm almost done with it. See you in half an hour!"

Tucker hit the button to disconnect the call and looked at Sam. "Hey, thanks again for helping me out with this."

"Don't mention it," the Goth said in a non-caring way. "Just hurry up, because my parents aren't going to want to give us a ride if we take too long."

"We can run there," Tucker said with a smile on his face.

Sam laughed, but when she saw Tucker's confused reaction, she realized that he wasn't kidding around. "You're serious?"

"Of course!" Tucker said gleefully. "I'm a great runner! We could run to the mall faster than driving there."

"Tucker, you _aren't_ a good runner. If you try running, you will slip. And you will fall. And I will laugh."

Meanwhile, at the mall, Danny repeatedly slumped lower and lower in his bench as he took repeated double-takes at the large clock on the wall and the line at the movie theater.

"Sheesh, what's taking them so long?" Danny asked. "If Tucker was really putting the finishing touches on it, why aren't they already on their way?"

A while from the mall, Sam and Tucker were walking out of Tucker's house now.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Tucker asked Sam as they walked over to the mall.

"It doesn't matter," Sam said. "Let's just get to that movie fast so we don't keep Danny waiting that long."

Back at the mall, Danny was still sitting on his bench in the food court as he waited for his friends to show up. Finally, he got tired of waiting and decided to find something to fill the time that he was devoting to waiting for his two friends.

Danny walked over to the counter of a restaurant at the food court and ordered himself a soda that would tide him over as he waited.

"Hey. One Mountain Dew, please?" Danny politely asked the middle-aged man at the counter.

"Coming up," the clerk said, walking to the back of the room.

As Danny stood at the counter, he noticed that there was a small television screen coming from the wall, and the news was on. The news story immediately caught Danny's eyes.

The reporter was sitting at the desk and giving the camera a very serious look. On the screen, the words BREAKING NEWS were written in a small gray box displayed behind the reporter's head with the station's graphics.

"We have breaking news from Channel 24," the reporter said as she stared at the computer in a completely neutral way. "Two teenagers were found murdered on the sidewalk of Malbury Street just a few minutes ago."

On the screen flashed the images of the two teenagers who were killed, and Danny's heartbeat completely stopped when he saw who it was. One was a picture of a Goth girl staring at the camera in a grudging way with an expression that said, "Take that picture and I'll rip your face off".

The other was a picture of a dark skinned boy with glasses waving to the camera, looking very casual.

"The teenagers have been identified as Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, both fourteen years old and students in the local high school. Paramedics are on the way and will be looking for a cause of death. Right now, there are no suspects."

Danny looked at the screen in complete horror. He dropped his soda as the clear liquid started fizzing all over the floor. He continued staring at the screen with every single feeling in his body going off the wall.

"Sam…Tucker…no!" he yelled.

Darting away from the counter, Danny ran into the boys' bathroom and ran into one of the stalls. As he ran into the stall, he suddenly began morphing. His red and white t-shirt changed into a black jumpsuit, and white gloves appeared on his hands. His jeans turned into the lower part of the black jumpsuit with white boots on his feet that replaced the sneakers. His hair turned a snowy-shade of white and his blue eyes turned to a haunting emerald color. All of this happening while a ring popped up around his midsection and split itself apart, one half traveling up his body while the other half went downwards.

Now changed into his ghostly alter-ego, Danny went intangible and flew through the roof of the mall and started flying very quickly of the skies, trying to find Malbury Street before anything worse happened.

It was personal now. Normally, Danny would be looking for someone as cold blooded as a murderer in order to stop them from committing any more crimes, even though ghosts didn't normally commit murders, and ghosts were the thing he considered himself responsible for hunting down and stopping.

But with Sam and Tucker being the victims, Danny had more motivation than ever to find the killer, or killers. Now, it wasn't for justice or for the safety of the other people. Now, it was strictly for revenge.

Danny finally found the street. He swooped down and landed on the sidewalk, and right in front of him were the bodies of Sam and Tucker, lying completely lifeless on the sidewalks. There were policemen, detectives and paramedics starting to swarm all over the place and ordering everyone around to get back and to stay back. Danny ran behind a tree and morphed out of his ghost form and came out from behind the tree looking the way he did when he ran into the bathroom at the mall.

Desperate to get a closer look at what was going on, Danny ran over to the two bodies to get a closer look. But his time to do so didn't last very long.

"Hey, kid!" yelled one of the police officers as he looked at Danny. "Get away from here!"

"Those are my friends!" Danny insisted, pushing the officer away and getting right in front of the corpses of Sam and Tucker, both of whom were alive only a few minutes before.

Danny looked up when he heard shrieking in horror and despair. When he saw who it was, he felt even more glum.

Tucker's parents were there and Sam's parents were there. The couples were embracing each other and were sobbing in each other's arms. In all honesty, Danny couldn't blame them. He knew that those were their children who had just been killed, and he felt a lot of remorse and grief for them as well.

"Who did this?..." Danny softly asked amidst all the chaos. "Why would someone want to come out of nowhere and kill two innocent teenagers who didn't do a thing?..."

Danny's silent muttering to himself was abruptly cut off. He looked up into the sky and saw something: a ghost. However, for the first time in a long time, the ghost that he was looking at seemed genuinely terrifying. It was wearing a long, black cloak and the face was completely concealed.

"Y…you!" Danny weakly said. "_You're_ the one that killed my friends, aren't you?! I'll bet you have some elaborate plan to killing my friends to try to make me join you in some scheme! Well, guess what? It's not working!"

"Danny…" the ghost said in a raspy and sinister voice.

"Oh, so you're Dr. Claw, huh?" Danny asked in reply to the ghost's voice.

"Danny, don't go getting yourself into this situation. Allow nature to run its course and let the problem be resolved on its own," the cloaked ghost warned.

"How do you know my name?!" Danny demanded.

"Don't ask questions and listen," the cloaked ghost warned. His raspy voice was so terrifying that normally it would be enough to give a person nightmares just hearing it. "If you try to get yourself involved in what's going on, you will find yourself in great danger. Let the problem work itself out."

"You've gotta be kidding!" Danny snapped. "Someone comes along and kills my two best friends in the entire world. I can't see them any more; I can't laugh with them anymore; I can't confide in them anymore! And you're telling me to just let it go?!"

"Yes," the cloaked figure said. "If you know what's good for you, you will."

"Yeah? Well, if you know what's good for _you_, you'll stop trying to tell me what to do!"

Not wanting the conversation to go on any longer, the cloaked ghost flew away and into a thick patch of trees. Danny didn't want any more trouble, so he simply flew behind the tree and morphed back into his human part. He was enraged that he would never see his two best friends again. Nothing had ever made him that angry. Ever.

"There you are!" screamed someone.

Danny turned around and he saw two very well dressed and very proper looking people staring at him. One was a man and the other was a woman, and Danny knew who it was automatically. It was Sam's parents.

As if that weren't bad enough, Danny turned around and he saw Tucker's parents there as well. Simultaneously both of his friends' parents started bickering at Danny and were criticizing and somehow blaming him for the deaths of Sam and Tucker.

Danny got so frustrated with it that after a while he grabbed his raven-black hair and looked up into the sky. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a deafening scream that emptied him of all his frustration, anger, depression and rage in one outing. The criticism continued after Danny's unleash of his strong emotions.

Meanwhile, up in the tree, the cloak figure was watching the entire scene. He was watching Danny get endlessly criticized and blamed for something out of his control. He had no part in it, and yet he was being blamed. Just because he was Sam and Tucker's best friend.

"Heh," the cloaked figure smirked. "Sorry, kid." There was a long pause as the figure continued to watch. Then, he slowly lifted his head up. "At least it's working."

Danny was so full of rage that he felt like his insides could just burst. Never before had he felt so obliged to suicide. Of course, he didn't believe in suicide, so that was automatically ruled out.

Inside his mind, thoughts of revenge and payback flooded Danny's mind.

"_No, I can't get revenge,"_ Danny thought to himself as he drowned out all the complaining that Sam and Tucker's parents were giving him. _"Revenge is never worth it and it's not morally right. There's gotta be some other way."_

Then Danny's fists clenched up. His teeth grit and his eyes seemed to get even icier. He was starting to look scary and he wasn't even in his ghost form. _"No way. Killing my friends is going too far. I'll find the one responsible for this and I'm gonna make him pay! I'll make sure he feels the same amount of pain he's causing me right now, and then some."_

Danny's mind was officially made up. He was going to get his revenge and that was the end of it. He would avenge Sam and Tucker's death. He was going to find out who committed the murders and he was going to give the murderer his own sense of justice.

Little did Danny know that this one decision to avenge his friends would take him on a twisting and shocking adventure that he would have never anticipated from the beginning. This adventure would not only prove to be dangerous for Danny, but dangerous for his loved ones. For his entire town. And if things didn't go right, possibly the whole world could be in jeopardy if Danny didn't succeed at what would soon become one of his most dangerous adventures yet.


	2. Mist

Whoops, forgot the disclaimer. I don't own Danny Phantom in any way, shape or form. No characters, no nothing.

And I didn't get any reviews last chapter. I'm very disappointed, to put it lightly. Hopefully it'll get better. I'd really appreciate reviews from anyone with any feedback.

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Deep within the bowels of the ghost zone was a large, looming building. It was very unwelcoming and it had definitely had an evil presence about it. It was completely black on the outside, and it wasn't much brighter on the inside. The floors were tiled, but the tile was dark. The concrete that made up the walls was also very dark. There were a few lights along the way to illuminate the path.

In the center of one of the furthest back room was a dark figure. He stood in front of a wall that depicted pictures of mysterious people. The pictures of everyone were very clear, but there was something really strange about all of them.

Then, out of nowhere, four other figures warped themselves into the room. They all walked right around the figure who was originally there, almost like they were expecting some sort of conversation with him.

The first figure looked at the others who came in. It looked like an important meeting was about to take place.

"How did it go?" the first figure asked.

"Everything went according to plan," said a rough, yet old sounding feminine voice. "His friends are gone now."

"Spectacular," said the first figure. "I take it you have the rest of the plan in place?"

"Yes," said a third ghost. He talked in a very sophisticated voice, and it even had a French tone to it. "Like she said, everything is going according to plan." (Except it sounded more like "Lyyke she said, evellything thing eez going aggording to plawn.")

"Very good," the dark figure said. "But from what I've heard, he's going to be very difficult to recruit. How do we know for sure he's going to join us?"

"If he doesn't come on our side, I'll turn into a Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger and kick the snot out of him!!" said a very loud and surprisingly obnoxious masculine voice from one of the other figures.

"How many times have we told you that you _can't_ turn into a Power Ranger?" asked the dark figure in the center of the other four.

"Yeah!" yelled a louder, but more enthusiastic masculine voice. This one sounded very deep and serious. "You taking on that kid by trying to morph into a Power Ranger would be like a six year old taking on Michael Jordan one-on-one!"

"Must you compare everything to sports?" the dark figure asked. "Bottom line: the first part of the task was accomplished."

"Yes," the other four figures said in unison.

"Well then, each of you have your own projects to be working on now," the figure in the middle said. "All of you are to remain working until it's time for phase two to come into effect."

"But what if he's mean and doesn't want to play with us?!" yelled the obnoxious voice.

The figure in the middle smiled, revealing a row of surprisingly white teeth. "Don't worry. He will. And if he doesn't, he will pay the ultimate price: his life."

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That night, Danny was just getting into bed. It was about 8:30 and the streets outside were completely empty. As Danny hopped into his bed, he thought about how the events of the day would forever impact him for the rest of his life. His two best friends in the whole wide world were gone, forever. Occasionally, the reality of that just hit him.

"I can't…really believe they're gone…" Danny whined as he got under the blankets and rested his head on the pillow. It had felt like an eternity since he had last seen them. And the worse part was that it was only the first night.

Danny eventually stopped mumbling to himself and just tried to relax and get a good night's sleep. But the moment he closed his eyes, the room suddenly turned cold. He opened his eyes just in time to see a blue cloud of smoke come from his mouth.

"Ergh…I'm not in any mood for this!" he scolded to himself as he sat up and got ready to transform. But the nastiest surprise came when he saw that the ghost who had set off his ghost sense was standing right in front of his bed. Danny let out a terrified yelp when he saw the ghost.

"Shhhh," the ghost comforted. The ghost was feminine looking. She had long brown hair, but she looked like she had just been through a huge ordeal. Part of her looked very exhausted. "It's okay. There's no need to feel threatened."

Danny didn't let his guard down. He slowly got up out of his bed and never stopped making eye contact with the ghost. "Who are you?" he finally asked after stammering for a while.

"I'm sorry for not introducing myself," she said in a serious tone. "My name is Mist, a former member of the Deathbringers."

"Wait, the what?" Danny asked, now getting confused.

"Please, follow me," she said as she turned towards the window. "You can turn into your ghost form and follow me to my secret hideaway."

"Wait, how do you know I can do that?!" Danny asked very suspiciously.

"I saw what happened to your friends earlier today. I saw you morph into a ghost, and I followed you here to see where you lived," Mist explained.

"What do you want with me?" Danny asked. " 'Cause I'm not going anywhere until I get an explanation."

Mint crossed her arms and looked very stern. "Well, you're not getting an explanation how to go somewhere. I have details about your friends' murders. I can tell you who committed them, _why_ they committed those acts and what they're going to do next."

Danny looked very uneasy with what he was about to do. It was clearly visible that there were several things racing through his mind. What if Mist was really leading him into a trap? Could she really be trusted? But then again, if he didn't trust her, then how would he find out who _really_ killed Sam and Tucker and for what reasons they did it? Could he just find the answers to those questions out on her own, or would Mist turn out to be a large help to him.

"Errrggh…fine!" Danny said coldly. He changed into his ghost counterpart, but still looking very suspicious.

"Smart choice," Mist said. "Follow me."

Mist passed right through the walls to Danny's bedroom, with Danny right behind her. He followed her through the night streets until she finally stopped in front of an old shack that was beginning to fall apart. The wood that was making it up was chipping and it barely looked big enough for one person, never mind two.

"Why'd you take me to this dump?" Danny asked in disgust when he saw where Mist led him.

"This 'dump' is my hideout. I'm staying here to keep a low profile from the other Deathbringers."

Saying this, Mist passed through the door. The door looked like it was about to fall off its hinges any moment, so Danny decided it would be best to just pass through it as well. No telling what would happen to the shack if it saw movement for the first time in decades.

The inside looked about as unattractive as Danny had imagined it. Wooden boards on the floor were either filled with holes or were sticking up out of place. The walls had mold and holes all over them as well. And Danny couldn't be sure of it, but he was pretty sure the roof looked like it was about ready to fall in.

"So, what's going on?" Danny asked. He had kept his part of the bargain. Now he wanted to know why Mist had led him out there.

Mist sighed. "There is much to tell. Where do you want me to start?"

"You said something about some Deathbringers or something like that," Danny said. "Why don't you start there?"

"All right," Mist said. She sighed again. "First, Danny, there are some things you should know. When a person is living and has a strong focus on something very dear to them, but they pass away before they can do it, a memory of that person remains."

"No offense," Danny said, "but that would be a ghost. I know a lot about those. Trust me. And how does all that fit into the Deathbringers?"

Mist sighed yet again. "I am embarrassed to say it, but I was once a member of the Deathbringers myself. They are an organization of ghosts that are bent on becoming powerful and not allowing anything to stand in their way."

Danny smirked. "I guess they weren't very creative, huh?"

"Danny, you don't understand," Mist said. "It may not sound so creative, but that doesn't change the fact they are very dangerous. The way they plan on achieving that great power is absolutely horrible."

"Really?" Danny asked. "What can be so horrible about it? And why are they even calling themselves the Deathbringers in the first place?"

"They have very high expectations for themselves," Mist said. "They have been plotting for several years and doing research on something that they thought would bring them great power. Now, their research is complete and they are so close to accomplishing their goal that it is terrifying. If they complete that goal, then they will have so much power that everyone will be at their mercy."

"And let me guess," Danny said in a bored and annoyed way, "you turned to me to make sure their plan didn't go through? How come you're asking me to stop them now when their plan is almost complete?"

"I was a member of the Deathbringers for most of the time they were working on it," Mist answered. "When I saw how awful their intentions really were, I quit. They said they were trying to recruit you and make you a Deathbringer, and to make sure you went along with their wishes, they planned on killing your two friends."

"Wait!" Danny yelled. "So the Deathbringers were the ones who killed Sam and Tucker?!" Danny yelled. "And now they expect me to join them? Where's the logic in that?!"

"They thought they could try to scare you," Mist said. "The Deathbringers thought that if they scared you and made you fear them enough, then you would choose to side with them."

"Pfft," Danny scoffed. "What do they think I am, stupid?"

Mist smiled. "I'm glad you're rejecting their offer. And to answer your first question, the reason they call themselves the Deathbringers is because if their plan goes through, they will hold more power than any enemy you have ever encountered. They would be able to kill any living creature-from an ant to a human like you-with the same amount of effort."

"Whoa!" Danny yelled, suddenly becoming more scared. "They're going to become _that_ powerful if their plan goes through?"

"Yes."

"Sheesh. I'd better stop them, then."

"Thank you," Mist said securely.

Danny looked really energized, but that quickly faded away. "Uh…would you mind telling me what their plan is, exactly?"

Mist looked really surprised with herself for forgetting the most obvious part of the explanation. "I'm sorry. The Deathbringers are going to…"

But before Mist could finish, Danny's ghost sense went off again. Then, he heard high shrill laughter. He looked around until a ghost suddenly appeared in front of both of them in a black cloud.

This ghost had short, but very messy blonde hair. He looked exceptionally overweight and was wearing very casual clothes. His face was round with a lot of extra flab on it, as did just about every other part of his body.

"Yeah!" he yelled. "Looks like I was able to make it before the player could say anything stupid to the press!"

Danny looked very annoyed with the unwelcome visitor. "Uh…and exactly who are you?"

"He's…" Mist started.

But she was cut off when the ghost turned away from Mist and gave all his attention to Danny. He had a particularly weird and creepy smile on his face. "The name's Jerel, one of the five Deathbringers!" (His name was pronounced Juh-rell)

"Jerel?" Danny asked. "A Deathbringer? Were you the one who killed Sam and Tucker?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jerel said, putting his hands up and stopping Danny. "Don't go spoiling all the fun yet. It's still the first week of the season. Sit back and enjoy a few games, why don't ya?"

"What?" Danny asked, very confused with what Jerel was talking about.

"Jerel, as obsessive about sports as ever, I see," Mist coldly said.

Jerel turned back to Mist. "Oh! Look! It's a Mets player who's gone to the Yankees! Betrayals really aren't nice, you know. They'll only lead you to trouble!"

Saying this, Jerel grabbed Mist by the arm and started flying away with her.

"Hey! Bring her back!" Danny ordered as he held a fist up to Jerel. "Or else!"

Jerel stopped and looked back at Danny. "This isn't Hockey, y'know. That means there are going to be no fights. Got it?"

After making this taunt, Jerel flew away with Mist, leaving Danny standing in the shack with his fists balled.

"Oh, really?" he said coldly. "I guess you've never seen a rough game of football in your life if you think Hockey's the only sport where fights are gonna break out."


	3. First Fight of the Journey

Danny didn't waste any time before he started flying out of the old shack that Mist was using for her hideout. He was soon back outside on the night streets. Just a few yards ahead of him was Jerel, and he was carrying Mist away with him.

Danny could see Jerel fly right into Danny's house, and Danny didn't even begin to want to think about the horrors that Jerel could cause if he were to go in there.

Flying back into his house, Danny changed out of his ghost half and was running down to the basement, which is where he assumed Jerel took Mist. Sure enough, when he got down into the basement, Danny saw the portal to the Ghost Zone was wide open, with his dad standing right in front of it but looking away.

_Sheesh, my dad can't be THAT unobservant,_ Danny thought. _A ghost flies right past him into the portal and he doesn't even notice? What's up with that?_

Danny soon got the answer to his question. Jack Fenton seemed to be obsessing over something in his hand. He was holding something very small in his gloved hand like it was a giant lump of gold.

"Dad, did you just see a gh…" Danny started.

Jack lit up and turned towards his son anxiously.

"Danny! I'm glad you're awake to see this!" Jack yelled excitedly. "I was just going through the Ghost Zone, and look what I found!"

Jack opened up his hand and showed Danny the item that he was practically worshipping: a piece of green glass.

Danny got very annoyed, but he had to do his best to hide it. _You've gotta be kidding me, _he thought to himself. _Dad wasn't paying attention to a single thing around him? A ghost carrying another ghost flew right into the ghost portal, which was only a few inches behind him, and dad didn't notice because he was too busy getting fascinated over a piece of glass?!_

"Dad, what's the big deal?" Danny asked, the frustrating in his voice growing very obvious. "All you did was go into the ghost zone, break a window and then take a shard of glass back?"

"No!" Jack yelled. "I found this piece of glass in the ghost zone already! That means another ghost _already_ smashed it! This piece of glass was _actually_ broken by another ghost! Amazing!"

Danny rolled his eyes. Realizing Mist was still in huge trouble as they spoke, Danny had to do his best to create a distraction that would get Jack to leave so he could got into the ghost zone and go after Jerel.

"Hey dad, aren't you late for your midnight snack?" Danny asked.

Jack looked horrified. "Oh my gosh! You're right!"

Saying this, Jack ran out of the basement and towards the refrigerator. Danny stared in complete disbelief that his plan worked.

"Wow. I wonder how long it'll take him to realize it's only 9:30? Oh well, time to find Jerel."

Danny changed back into his ghostly alter-ego and flew right through the portal to the ghost zone. He was greeted by the mysterious abyss that was the Ghost Zone. He saw all the weird buildings and objects and doors floating in the middle of nowhere. The entire place was huge, and Jerel could have been anywhere by now. Danny had no time to waste. He had to go find Jerel before it was too late.

Danny started flying straight ahead of him, since it was as good a direction as any to start looking. But after flying only a few seconds, a very nasty surprise came his way.

Jumping right in front of Danny was the cloaked figure again. He had his arms crossed, but his face was still concealed. He looked very displeased to see Danny in the Ghost Zone.

"I thought you were told not to do anything," the figure asked in his scary, deep voice.

"And I thought I told you to go away and leave me alone. And in case I didn't, I am now: GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The cloaked figure started laughing. "You think a half-ghost like yourself can tell me what to do? Ha!"

Danny gritted his teeth and tried to not let his anger get the better of him. Although he was about ready to explode from rage, he kept telling himself that it wouldn't do him any good to get angry.

"Look, I don't have time to put up with you. You already gave me enough trouble earlier today!"

"Oh, did I?" the cloaked figure asked. "My sincerest apologies."

"That better not be sarcasm," Danny mumbled. "Now are you going to move, or not?"

"I'll say that's an 'or not'," the cloaked figure replied in a cocky way.

"Fine," Danny said. "I'll _make_ you move."

Danny put both of his hands together and started forming a ball of green ectoplasmic energy in between his palms. He started charging up the blast, and in just a few moments, he unleashed it and fired a ray of bright green light at the cloaked figure.

The cloaked figured guarded by putting out his hands. When he did so, a black shield-like force field popped up in front of him. The energy hit the force field and was completely absorbed.

"I thought you'd do better than that," the cloaked figure taunted after just foiling Danny's first attack.

"What?" Danny asked. Before he gave the cloaked figure an opportunity to answer, he flew up to him and started firing a series of punches at him.

The punches hit the cloaked figure every single time and he never got an opportunity to defend himself. Danny kept pummeling away until the cloaked figure finally put his arms out and put a giant black sphere around himself.

The black sphere sent Danny hurling backwards through the air. It felt like he had just been pushed away by a brick wall. He continued flying backwards until he landed back-flat on a random door that was floating around.

Danny tried to recover, and when he regained his senses, he saw that the cloaked figure was not attacking him at all. The cloaked figure was just floating there with his arms crossed and giving Danny what appeared to be a cold look.

"Have I proven myself _yet_?" the cloaked figure asked.

"Yeah," Danny admitted. He promptly fired another blast of energy at the cloaked figure. He caught the figure off guard, and as a result, the figure went backwards and back several feet. "You've proven that you seem more focused on yapping than actually winning the fight."

The cloaked figure snarled a little at this and was soon back in the fight. He started ascending higher and higher up. When he was many yards above Danny, he seemed to be conjuring up a lot of his power. In just a few seconds, he was sending several lasers of black energy firing down at him.

Trying to evade the lasers, Danny kept jumping from side to side. Barely one laser went passed him that he didn't hear _whoosh _by the side of his head. He was lucky that all the lasers were missing.

The cloaked figure eventually ran out of energy and seemed to be taking a moment to recover, which Danny soon used to his advantage. He went over to a random object floating through the ghost zone that was shaped like a giant rock. He fired blast of energy at it, causing a large fragment to break off.

Taking the fragment, Danny started ascending higher until he was above the cloaked figure. It looked like his grip on the fragment was loosening as he looked down at the figure.

"You're gonna be having a headache for a while once I'm through with you," Danny said with a nasty grin on his face. He let the chunk of rock go and it started falling. In just seconds, it would have crushed the cloaked figure.

The cloaked figure jumped out of the way just in time and the rock continued falling…and falling…and falling…and falling…

Danny scowled when he saw that he had failed to defeat the cloaked figure with that one method, but he didn't have any time to complain about it. After a short pause, he was back on his toes again and had to get ready to continue the fight.

The cloaked figure started flying close to Danny and almost reluctantly seemed to fire a blast of energy at him. The black rays hit him square in the chest and knocked him backwards and temporarily stunned.

Danny slowly got up, but his vision was blurred for a while. When he saw that the cloaked figure was still looming over him, that gave him all the motivation he needed to start fighting again.

Danny began firing a series of green blasts, and the cloaked figure weaved his body around each and every single one of them. Ultimately, every single one of the blasts missed.

Danny was getting discouraged with how hard this cloaked figure was turning out to be.

"Danny, I thought you'd be stronger than this after all the other ghosts you've fought," the cloaked figure said. "Why don't you just give up now?"

"Don't push my buttons," Danny warned. "Because then I get angry. And when I get angry, you're better off dealing with Bruce Banner."

After making his analogy, Danny was beginning to get himself back together. He started firing more and more blasts of energy, but he was clearly weakening a lot after the fight. He usually didn't have to fight like this. Most ghosts that he battled were just cakewalks that he could take on in just a few hits and finish them

The cloaked figure tried once more to make Danny give up and admit defeat. He flew over to Danny very quickly and started forming a thin stream of black energy in his hands. He promptly let it loose and started firing it like a jolt of electricity coming from his hands.

The ray hit Danny it raised him into the air. The black energy just kept pouring into him, but somehow, Danny didn't seem to fell a lot of pain.

_Ha,_ Danny thought to himself, _this is one his best attacks? I'm not feeling a thing! What a weakling!_

After firing the dark ray for a while, the cloaked figure stopped. Danny was pretty upset about what just happened, despite the fact that he was laughing to himself about how pathetic it was.

After firing a series of punches at the cloaked figure, the cloaked figure was obviously starting to slow down. He was losing a lot of strength, and Danny used this to his advantage.

When the cloaked figure looked like he was just about worn down, Danny hopped back several meters and started forming one last giant ball of ectoplasmic energy in his hand. So much energy was gathering in it that his hair was starting to get blown back from the energy released from it.

The cloaked figure saw what was going to happen, and as if trying to make one last desperate attempt to stay in the fight, he put up his hands and tried to halt Danny from firing.

But those attempts were futile. Despite the cloaked figure's pleas not to attack him, Danny released the green blast of energy from his hand. It thrust itself right through the cloaked figure and sent him flying back literally hundreds of feet. Danny watched with a large, mischievous smile on his face as he saw his enemy get knocked back that far.

"Hopefully I won't have to fight him again," Danny said. "Anyway, I can't worry about some Dr. Claw imitator in an outfit that would only look good on the Ghost of Christmas Future."

Danny continued flying through the ghost zone and tried to find the place where the Deathbringers' stronghold was. Danny thought that if he could take on that cloaked figure, then he should be able to take on the Deathbringers with no sweat. Heck, for all he knew, the cloaked figure could be a member of the Deathbringers himself.

Little did Danny know that the Deathbringers would prove to be much more challenging fights than the cloaked figure put up. There was no going back now. Danny's real quest for revenge was about to begin, and would soon erupt into something more than he ever thought possible.


	4. A Daring Rescue

Before I start, I want to thank "Just Call Me Crazzy" and Soccurgurl for those two reviews. I was getting a little worried, but as long as reviews keep coming, I'll be satisfied. Thank you very much for those reviews. Please keep'em coming!

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Danny ended up getting lost several times. He had no idea what the Deathbringers' Lair looked like, and when he realized that a few minutes after the battle, he knew that there was trouble ahead of him.

After flying through the ghost zone for a while longer, Danny finally saw something that seemed very peculiar. Floating many yards in front of him was a building. The building was completely black and it looked like a giant fort. The building looked to be about as wide as a giant commercial office building, but it was only a few stories high. On top of the highest part of the building was a triangular roof that formed a large point a few feet above the roof.

The building looked like it was used for something, and something very dangerous at that. A feeling in Danny's gut urged him that he needed to go in that building if he wanted to find answers to any of his questions right now.

Danny was surprised to see the door was unlocked. As he opened it up, he was introduced to a long, dark hallway. There were barely any lights in the entire building at all. Some light was scattered that illuminated the path in front of him, but the entire place still looked darker than any shade of black Danny had ever seen before.

The inside of the building was deceptively huge. At first, it looked like it was going to be much smaller than it was.

Danny started running down the long halls and up a small staircase at the end of the path. Then things started to get confusing. There was a left and right possible turn, and just by looking down both ways, Danny could see there were several others rooms and turns through the hallways.

"Great," he thought. "Jerel could be anywhere here. How am I going to find him in a place like this?"

Then a more horrible thought crossed Danny's mind. Maybe he wasn't even in the right place to begin with. He had no idea what the Deathbringers' lair looked like. For all he knew, he could be standing in a mansion of some ghostly used car dealer.

"No," Danny said. "I'm here already. This may be the wrong place, but I might as well look."

And so Danny's search through the mysterious building commenced. He decided looking through the left hallway. It was as good a place to start as any, after all.

Danny was suddenly wakened by the sound of approaching footsteps and voices talking. Thinking quickly, he ran back and hid behind the corner he just took. Holding his breath, he waited to see who was coming.

From behind the corner came two ghostly figures. One looked like a taller, fancy looking man who had a slight brown mustache and equally dark brown eyes. Heck, even the way he was dressed looked very sophisticated and pompous.

Next to him was a woman who looked rather ugly. She was considerably short, but her expression looked particularly nasty and malicious somehow. Her hair was a shade of lighter brown and was sticking to her head but was very lumpy. Her face seemed to have a lot of extra flab in it and may have even been creepy enough to scare little children.

Then Danny saw something very shocking that took him back to about half an hour ago when he first saw Jerel coming to abduct Mist. On the upper right part of the two ghosts' chests in front of him was a certain emblem. It had a skull with a blood red "D" written on it, just like the one on Jerel's chest when he came to take Mist. It was the (apparent) emblem of the Deathbringers.

"Yup, this is the place all right," Danny said softly when he saw the two ghosts walking around in front of him. "Now all I need to do now is find Mist and get her out of here. I can't say I blame her for quitting the Deathbringers if they were in a place like this."

"…you really think we could recruit him?" asked the male ghost. (But because of his accent, his voice sounded a bit more like, "You leely think we could leecruit heem?")

"If the kid knows what's good for himself," the ugly female ghost said in a very unpleasant and threatening way.

Danny started laughing to himself when he heard the conversation. He couldn't believe that these were going to be his enemies on his quest to avenge the deaths of Sam and Tucker.

"So, the Deathbringers are made up of a woman who looks like Helen Thomas, a guy who apparently is a mail-order French Romance geek, and a diehard sports fan? Sheesh, what's next?"

No sooner did Danny utter those words did a loud, shrieking voice ring through the empty black walls of the building.

The screaming lasted several seconds, and the sudden sound of it caused Danny to jump and his heart beat started increasing very quickly. He sharply turned around and saw a kind of chubby looking ghost with a very round head and little hair. He looked similar to Jerel, except his face looked much more babyish.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" screamed the ghost in complete terror. One of the first things Danny noticed was that the ghost was carrying a yo-yo and dangling it from one of his fingers and in the other hand were a few trading cards. "Mommy! There's a scary person in the house!"

"What the?..." Danny asked. "This isn't your house. You're not a…oh man!"

Danny looked down at the loud ghost's chest and saw the Deathbringer's emblem on the upper right corner of his shirt.

"Wait," Danny said. "_You're_ a Deathbringer?"

"Mommy!!!" the ghost screamed again, this time even louder.

The attention of the other two ghosts was instantly grabbed when they heard the scream. Not wanting to be detected or caught, Danny made a break for it. He ran past the loud screaming ghost and pushed him onto the ground in order to make it passed him.

"Jeez, are these guys even going to be worth my time?" Danny asked himself as he ran through the giant rooms, trying to avoid getting caught by any of the Deathbringers.

And unfortunately for Danny, it sounded like some of the other ghosts were close on his tail. He could hear the other ghosts running after him and they were apparently a lot faster than he was.

"Darn it!" Danny said when he realized if he didn't find some place to hide quickly, he would get caught. And then he thought the things the Deathbringers would do to him would be beyond awful.

By a stroke of luck, Danny saw a staircase heading downwards. He had no idea where the staircase was leading, but he could hide on it.

Danny started climbing down the stairs and began to lay down on the stairs when he was about halfway down. He was completely hidden but could still see up the stairs enough to see what was happening.

Things fell Danny's way. He could see the three Deathbringers (the loud, immature one, the French-sounding one and the ugly woman ghost) run right by the stairs as if they weren't even there.

Danny rolled over on the stairs so he was now lying on his back. With a soft "Whew," he wiped some sweat off of his forehead. He knew it was too dangerous to go back up on the main floor, so he thought he should head down the entire flight of stairs.

When Danny eventually got down to the bottom, he saw another long corridor. But this time, there were no other rooms or forks in the walkway. There was only a single straight line that was heading to the other end of the room.

After walking through the long corridor, Danny saw a large, metal door with a small window. The small window had bars vertically going from the top of the window to the bottom.

"Danny?" said a weak voice from inside the room.

The voice sounded familiar. It only took Danny a second to register in his mind who it was.

"Mist? Is that you in there?" Danny asked.

"Danny, why are you here?" said the voice from the prison. Then, a face appeared behind the bars.

It truly was Mist in there. Danny assumed that he was standing right in front of a dungeon.

"I came to save you," Danny said. "Without you I don't stand a hope of taking down those Deathbringers. You were once one of them and I'm sure you could provide some very useful information to me about how to defeat them."

"Danny, this place isn't safe," Mist nervously said. "Don't worry about me. Just get yourself out of here."

"Well, well, well!" said a familiar deep and booming voice from behind.

Danny jumped and turned around to see who it was. He was staring at a ghost who looked overweight and had short blonde hair and a round face. Danny knew who it was from their last meeting less than an hour before.

"Jerel…" Danny whispered. It was indeed Jerel, one of the other Deathbringers.

"Looks like the manager finally came out for the press conference!" Jerel yelled with an obnoxiously wide smile on his face.

"Jerel, what'd you take Mist for?" Danny yelled.

"Hey, football coaches never tell the other team's coach their strategy, right?" Jerel asked as he put his hands on his hips. "You ain't any different, kid."

Feeling a surge of courage, strength, and possibly foolishness, Danny put up his fists and they started glowing green. "Then I'll fight you to let her go!"

Jerel started laughing. "You don't want to fight me, kid. I got home field advantage here. But whatever the fans want…"

Jerel held out his hand, and in a blast of green smoke, a tennis racket appeared in one hand and a regular looking tennis ball in the other.

"Get ready to take on someone who would make Venus Williams need to call a timeout!" Jerel threatened.

Jerel tossed the tennis ball into the air and swung at it with the racket that he formed in his hand as if he were serving.

Instinctively, Danny ducked from the tennis ball as it came soaring towards him. And it was a good thing, too, because the ball went right over Danny's head and it hit the wall behind him. Upon hitting the wall, the tennis ball exploded like a small bomb.

"Whoa!" Danny yelled, "What sporting goods store did you buy _that_ at?!"

"Heh heh heh," Jerel asked. "Impressed yet, or should I make another serve?"

Danny didn't answer and instead fired a blast of energy right into Jerel's face. Jerel was knocked against one of the walls and temporarily stunned.

"15-Love," Danny said in an arrogant tone after he made the first successful hit of the fight.

Jerel got up and looked very angry. He held out his hand again and formed another tennis racket and another ball in them. He served one ball and Danny jumped out of the way just in time.

But he never had time to recover, because Jerel started serving more and more. He started serving several balls in just a few seconds, causing Danny to have to stay on his feet.

Danny kept jumping out of the way as the explosive tennis balls that Jerel was serving continued to miss over and over. (Of course, Danny still felt the heat from the explosions, which slowed him down a little)

After all the smoke cleared, Jerel was smiling evilly. But when he saw Danny was still standing, he got even angrier.

"Booooooooooo!" Jerel yelled angrily when he saw he didn't hit Danny with any of the tennis balls. As if doing a magic trick, he made the tennis racket and balls disappear from his hand. The equipment was instantly replaced with a soccer ball.

No sooner did Jerel summon the soccer ball did he kick it into the air and launched it with the sole of his foot .The ball flew right into Danny's stomach and hit him so hard it knocked the wind out of him.

"GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!" Jerel yelled.

Danny looked at the soccer ball and saw it had a timer on it that was quickly counting down from ten seconds. Danny assumed it would detonate then.

Danny picked up the ball and threw it right back at Jerel, who caught it in his hands and looked at Danny very angrily.

"Hey! No hands in soccer!" he scolded.

Just as Danny guessed, the soccer ball then blew up in Jerel's hands. When the smoke cleared, Jerel was limping in pain and giving Danny a very irritated look. He slowly got up and ran away.

"Let's just saw I was the goalie then," Danny said trying to justify using his hands. (Although it didn't really matter) He turned his attention back to the door and blew a hole open in it, allowing Mist to escape.

"Thank you, Danny," she said with a sad smile. "But you really shouldn't push things. I can safely tell you the Deathbringers are much stronger than that. You just got lucky."

"Whatever," Danny said. "That'll teach the guy not to use explosive soccer balls anymore. Now come on. Let's get out of here."

Danny and Mist started walking down the long corridor and back up the stairs until a loud voice rang throughout the walls.

"Attention all Deathbringers!" yelled a cold, very intimidating voice. It sounded like it was coming from invisible loudspeakers. "We have an intruder. Find the intruder and eliminate him before he escapes!"


	5. Learning Their Plans

"Uh-oh," Danny said when he heard the voice echo off the walls. "Sounds like they're going to be looking for us."

"Oh no…" Mist said, sounding genuinely worried. "He'll be coming to look for us. Ar…"

"Did you say something?" Danny asked.

Mist looked a little embarrassed and scared. "No, it's nothing. Come on, we gotta get out of here!"

Danny quickly nodded his head and the two of them made their way through the giant building and trying to avoid being seen at all. Luckily for Danny, since Mist was a former member of the Deathbringers, she knew her way around fairly well.

"Okay, we're going to run around that corner," Mist said, pointing to a way into another room. "Once we get in that one, we're going to run into the second door to the left. That'll take us down a long corridor that will be a few doors from the exit. We have to go through that door and head to the door adjacent to the door at the end of the corridor on the right to…"

"Mist!" Danny said, cutting her off. "Watch out!"

Mist turned around and saw someone coming. They both hid behind a corner and saw a ghost walking by. It was the unattractive female one who looked very sour.

"Boy, did I hate her," Mist uttered under her breath when she saw the ghost walk by.

"Really?" Danny asked. "Why's that?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm just talking to myself," Mist said. "Come on, let's get out of here now."

Danny and Mist continued trying to make their way through the dark and twisting building. Several times they had to hide behind a wall or corner so that they wouldn't be caught by one of the Deathbringers. A time came when they had to dodge all of the ones that Danny had seen thus far.

After a long while, the exit was finally in sight. Danny and Mist jumped out of the doors, and even though the air in the ghost zone wasn't very pleasant, it felt so clean compared to the air in the Deathbringers' lair.

"Wow. So you actually worked with those guys for a while?" Danny asked as he and Mist started flying back to the portal that led into Danny's basement.

"Yes," Mist said sadly.

"Why? They all seem like a bunch of jerks. Or at least people who are hard to put up with."

Mist let out a small, sad sounding laugh. "Trust me. They were."

"Then how come you worked with them?"

"I was promised a lot of power and a status that would make even my name cause people to shake with fear."

"Whoa," Danny said, a bit surprised with hearing this. "You sound way too nice to be someone who was power hungry or something like that."

"Those Deathbringers made me realize how awful it really was what we were doing," Mist said. "That's why I left a note saying I was quitting and I left before anyone found the note so that they couldn't stop me. Or do something worse to me."

"Yeah, those guys definitely seem pretty hostile," Danny added. "But what exactly was it that made you go with them anyway? What was their plan that was enough to make you that violent?"

"I'll fill you in on it once we get back to my hideout," she explained. "If you wouldn't mind taking me there."

Danny laughed. "What am I, a cab driver?" he joked.

Danny and Mist eventually found their way back through to the portal that led to the basement of Danny's house. When they flew out of the ghost zone and into the safe confounds of Danny's home, Danny closed the portal and switched back into his teenaged form.

"All right, I'll check around to make sure my parents or sister aren't awake," Danny said. "If they see me leading a ghost around, _I'm gonna die._"

Mist laughed at Danny's exaggeration slightly. After Danny checked around to see that everyone in his house was still sound asleep, he gave Mist an "okay" sign and led her out of the house.

Danny and Mist were back on the night streets. It really didn't feel too weird for Danny, even though he was out way past his curfew and a ghost was following him. Sure enough, Danny and Mist were soon walking back into the small shack where Mist stayed.

Mist went back into her shack and slumped down in one of the chairs. She seemed exhausted, even though she was barely gone for two hours.

"By the way, why are you hiding out here in the real world?" Danny asked.

"I thought it would be a good place to hide from the Deathbringers," Mist explained. "Apparently, I was wrong. They found me here. At least Jerel found me here."

Danny looked very uncomfortable just hearing Jerel's name. "I'd hate to be rooting for whatever team he doesn't like…"

Mist didn't say anything. She just sat in her chair, trying to recover from the small ordeal that she just had to go through. The wooden walls of the shack creaked a little. If Danny didn't know better, he'd think that the walls were about to fall in.

"So, you were going to tell me what those Deathbringers are plotting?" Danny asked.

Mist suddenly jolted awake. "Oh, yes, of course," she said. "Sorry, I forgot all about it."

"It's all right," Danny said.

"Yes. The Deathbringers are an organization that was founded many years ago by a violent and aggressive ghost named Arkov," Mist started. "Arkov was a ghost bent on dominating and crushing all who stood in his way. So, he did some research and discovered a way that he could get amazing power that would fulfill his hopes and dreams."

"He wanted power just so everyone would fear him?" Danny asked. "Don't my bad guys come up with anything original now?"

"I'll admit he was absolutely not the first one to attempt to reach that goal," Mist continued, "but the way he was going to do it is something no other person, whether they be human or ghost, even dreamt possible."

"Really?" Danny asked. "What did he want to do?"

"Arkov found a fool-proof way that would help him attain that incredible power. But in order to do it, it would require several years of very hard work and patience. And it would also take some helping."

"And of all people to choose, he chose a rabid sports fan, an ugly old woman, a big baby and a guy who fits just about every French stereotype I've ever seen?" Danny asked. "That guy must not know a thing about hiring assistants."

"Actually, Arkov saw that those ghosts were very powerful and were capable of feeling little to no remorse about killing or torturing someone. Those ghosts were also very thirsty for power and dominance."

"Wow," Danny said. "So Arkov really seemed to have a reason to recruit those guys? They're actually good fighters?"

"Yes," Mist said. "They would be very difficult to beat in a fight, I'll tell you that right now."

Danny didn't say anything. He hoped that Mist would unintentionally provide some clue that would hint how to defeat the Deathbringers.

"So, what exactly was it that Arkov wanted to do?" Danny finally asked.

"Arkov's main objective, as I've already stated, is to gain tremendous power. But in order to do that, he would need the will and the strength of other ghosts. So, he hired the ones you saw in their stronghold to work on two separate projects that would need to be completed so that the power could be obtained."

"What were the two projects?"

"Do you remember that unattractive woman ghost and that other ghost with the French accent?"

"Sure do."

"Those were Noreen and Claude. Noreen and Claude were assigned by Arkov to work on constructing a machine that has the ability to take the ectoplasmic energy from deceased ghosts and translate it into power," Mist explained.

Danny raised an eyebrow. _"Ghosts can be deceased?"_ he thought to himself.

"Ghosts can be deceased," Mist said, almost like she was reading the expression on his face. "And that's what the other two Deathbringers' objective is about."

Danny was starting to get a little confused, but before he could speak up, Mist continued talking. "That loud, immature sounding ghost is named Gipperalson and…"

"That diehard sports fan's name was Jerel," Danny said, finishing off the sentence.

Mist nodded her head and then continued talking. "They were constructing a portal that would take them to the Plains of the Helpless Souls where the machine Noreen and Claude were working on would be put to use."

"Okay…now what exactly is the Plains of the Helpless Souls anyway?" Danny asked, trying to clear up some of the confusion.

"That's not important right now," Mist said. "What's important is that both teams have almost completed their projects now and it won't be long at all until they're ready to put their plan into motion."

"And what about the other Deathbringers?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, besides those four you just mentioned working on those projects, who else do I have to watch out for?"

"Only Arkov, but he's the only other one."

"You mean there are only four Deathbringers right now besides their leader?" Danny asked. "Man, I thought he'd have more help than that."

"That's all the help he needs, disturbingly enough," Mist said. "Except…"

Danny once again caught interest. "Except what?"

"Except that Arkov wanted you to become one of his Deathbringers. And to try to convince you to side with him, he killed your friends. He's going to do it again to other loved ones unless you team up with him."

Danny scoffed. "As if! He can't really think I'm going to help him out after he killed my two best friends in the entire world, can he?!"

"That's what I like to hear," Mist said with a small smile. "You're making the better choice. Trust me."

Danny now knew that he had his work cut out for him. He had to take on a group of people named the Deathbringers who were working on two projects. When completed, the two projects would make them more powerful than any other ghost or person could ever dream of being. And unfortunately, it looked like both projects were almost done.

Danny didn't know whether or not he would have to fight and take down all five Deathbringers (including Arkov) or if he'd just have to find a way to destroy all the work that they had done. But either way, he knew the next few days would be very important and very hard.

So to sum it all up, two Deathbringers (Noreen, the ugly woman, and Claude, the guy who talked with a French accent) were working on constructing a machine that could somehow take the ectoplasma from a dead ghost and make power out of it. The other two ghosts, Jerel and Gipperalson, (the sports fan and the immature and loud one) were working on constructing a portal that would take them to the Plains of the Helpless Souls. And Arkov probably played some role, as well…

"All right. So, do you want me to start heading off into the Deathbringers' lair and start ruining their plan?" Danny asked, getting ready to fly away.

"No," Mist said in a surprisingly stern voice. "You can't go there."

Danny felt deflated. He was actually getting excited about going there and beating some of the Deathbringers. (if not, all of them)

"What? Why not?"

"You're the Deathbringers' most precious target right now," Mist said. "A lot of them will come looking for you. Right now, think about what you can do to stop them from finishing their plains."

"What? How?"

"Think about where the portal might be to the Plains of the Helpless Souls or try to find something to stall its production. From what I understand, they've already completed the machine."

Danny had less time than he thought, then. With the machine capable of taking ectoplasma from deceased ghosts practically (or completely) finished, Danny would have to focus his attention more on stopping the portal from being built.

The one problem: he had no idea where the portal could be, what it looked like, or how he could stall it. And he really wanted to go the Deathbringers' lair and cream all five of them, but Mist told him not to.

"Listen," Mist pleaded. "The Deathbringers really want to recruit you. Don't go to them looking for trouble. _They'll_ come for _you._"


	6. Brawl in the Hall

TexasDreamer01, thank you VERY much for that review for the last chapter. Reviews give me motivation to keep going, so please keep 'em coming!

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Danny slowly made his way back into his house. It was very dark out and he was able to make it inside without disturbing any of his family members' sleep. After carefully making his way through the house, he was back in his bedroom and underneath the covers, ready to go sleep.

At least, he tried to go to sleep. But he found it very difficult. Not only was he wide awake after mini adventure he had had earlier that night, but he was thinking about what Mist had told him.

"_Those murderers…" _Danny thought. He didn't realize it, but he was gritting his teeth and squeezing his pillow. His eyes turned as icy as his heart. _"Yeah, revenge is wrong. Who cares? So is killing innocent people."_

Danny had more thoughts of hatred and revenge going through his mind than he ever had before. And it made sense as well that he'd feel that way. He never had his friends taken from him before. _"I'm never going to see those guys again…_"

Danny quietly drifted off to sleep. In just a few short hours, his alarm clock rang. He crawled out of bed, still exhausted from last night, and did his morning routine. He made his way down to the breakfast table. Jazz was sitting and looking very excited and perky, as were Danny's parents. But when they saw that Danny was still depressed about what happened to Sam and Tucker, they quickly calmed down.

Maddie tried her best to look casual as she poured Danny a bowl of cereal, but it was clear she was feeling very uneasy about how upset and depressed he looked.

"Oh, brighten up, Danny," Maddie tried to say when she handed Danny his cereal only to get a small "Pfft" from him.

"Yeah," Jazz said. "I know you're sad about your friends, but they're in a better place now. So cheer up."

Danny gave Jazz a cold look. "Have _you_ ever lost your two best friends in a cold blooded murder?"

"Well…no, but…"

"Then SHUT UP!"

Danny's parents looked horrified and they instantly became very upset with his sudden aggressive behavior. "Don't talk to your sister like that!" they both yelled.

Maddie saw Jazz was very hurt by Danny's rude remarks and went over to her. "Oh, don't worry, Jazz. In a few nights you have that award ceremony to go to where you'll get your Citizen Ship, Community Stewardess and Most Advanced awards."

Normally, Danny would be really upset with hearing about Jazz's accomplishments again. But now, he didn't care. There was only one thing on his mind, and that was getting revenge. It seemed to get more and more intense with every single passing day.

"Is it okay if I don't go to one of those ceremonies for once?" Danny asked his parents as he lifted his head up from his fist as he rested his elbow on the table.

"Sure," Jack said. "You can have the house all to yourself that night."

Danny sighed out of relief. _"At least I'll have some peace and quiet that night, then."_

Before he knew it, Danny was on the bus and headed to school. He looked at the empty seats beside him and remembered how he, Sam and Tucker would always fill those seats and make fun of the teachers, gossip about other students, or just chat. No more.

The day started and Danny was soon in Lancer's class. He was not able to concentrate that well on what was going on with his thoughts of hatred and revenge on the Deathbringers still flowing in his head. And with Mist saying that the Deathbringers were planning on becoming insanely powerful and possibly posing a threat to all humanity, Danny had the perfect excuse to slaughter them all and not feel any remorse about it.

"…and so, students," Lancer said in the middle of lecture, "Shweitzer Falls is named after the scientist who discovered it: Dr. Falls."

Danny wasn't paying any attention. Not only was Lancer's lesson boring as usual, but he had thoughts on his mind that he thought were more important. Then, of all times, Danny opened his mouth and his ghost sense went off.

Lightly stammering, Danny raised his hand and interrupted Lancer in the middle of his rant. "Mr. Lancer, can I go to the bathroom?" he asked anxiously.

"I suppose so," Lancer said. "Let me just write you a pa…"

"Thanks!" Danny yelled. He shot up from his seat and ran out the door without even taking the hall pass Lancer was writing in his hand.

Running out into the hall and slamming the door behind him, Danny took a sharp corner and changed into his ghost half. He then popped out from behind the corner of the wall and started flying through the halls, looking for the ghost that set off his sense.

After flying through the halls for a long time, Danny finally saw the ghost that set off his sense.

There was a dark, brooding figure floating in mid air a few feet in front of him. When he approached the figure, the figure looked up and the first thing that caught Danny's attention was an emblem with a skull and the letter D written on it. It was a Deathbringer.

"You!" Danny yelled. "You're one of those creeps that killed my friends!"

Danny didn't even realize that the ghost he was talking to was the ugly woman one until a few seconds later.

The ghost snickered. "Kid, I'm not "one of those creeps". I _am_ "that creep"."

Danny lost his breath for a second and suddenly had more thoughts of violence on his mind than he ever had before. "So _you're_ the one who killed my friends?!"

"You bet I am," the ghost said. "And I'll gladly do the same to you and not feel any remorse. You don't side with the Deathbringers, and you're dead, kid."

"Ha!" Danny yelled. "I don't think you realize who you're talking to!"

The woman started snickering. "Kid, it's _you_ who doesn't realize who you're talking to. Any idea who I am?"

"Yeah, I know you!" Danny said. "You must be Noreen, one of the Deathbringers who's responsible for building that machine. Am I right?"

"You're a smart kid," Noreen said. "But I'm the cruelest of all the Deathbringers. Mess with me, and you'll be begging for death."

"The only thing I'm begging for is a non-cliched threat," Danny said. "By the way, I know you're angry about your twin brother being thrown into the main reactor of the Death Star, but that's no reason to go around killing innocent kids, you know."

Noreen shrugged off Danny's insults almost like they were nothing and that she wasn't affected by them. "That'll be the last time you call me ugly."

"What? You want to fight me? Good, because I'm ready to do things to you that would make fatality moves in a Mortal Kombat game look like kid's stuff," Danny threatened.

Noreen started laughing. "You're a pretty cocky kid. Well then, if you're so powerful, maybe you'll have more fun taking on two of us at once!"

Noreen snapped her fingers and a black cloud appeared beside her. When the gases from the cloud started clearing, Danny could see another ghost standing beside her. This was the ghost with the babyish looking face and the large round head. He also had a Deathbringer's Emblem on his chest.

"So, let me ask again," Noreen said, acting like the other Deathbringer wasn't even there. "Are you going to side with us and obtain power beyond your wildest dreams?"

"After what you did to my friends?!" Danny yelled. "Guess again!"

Danny held out his hands and fired a blast of ectoplasmic energy at Noreen. Noreen was able to dodge it with no problem. She started laughing at how he missed, which caused Danny to get even more upset.

"Ha. I can't imagine why Arkov would even want you to side with us in the first place," Noreen taunted. "Your aim is pathetic."

"Come a bit closer and say that!" Danny yelled. He started firing more and more blasts at her, and Noreen was able to dodge each of every single one of them. Her disgusting face grew more cocky and taunting with each time Danny fired and missed.

"Hey Norry!" yelled the other Deathbringer. "I think Arkov wanted you to get back to him when you found this kid!"

"You're right," Noreen said. She turned to Danny. "Well, I've had a lovely time seeing how inept you were. Thank you for a very entertaining couple of minutes."

Almost like Noreen had some sort of teleportation power, she started disappearing in the same black cloud that the other Deathbringer appeared in. In just seconds, she was gone.

"Hey!" Danny yelled as he ran to where the black cloud was disappearing. "Next time we meet, you'll be sorry!"

Danny was breathing heavily, but the silence was interrupted by the other Deathbringer. He turned around to see the second Deathbringer laughing.

"Ha ha!" the other Deathbringer taunted. "You got beat really bad!"

Danny growled, but tried to keep his sanity about him. He looked at the emblem on the ghost's chest and said, "You're Gipperalson, aren't you? The ghost responsible for finding that portal thing with Jerel?"

The ghost suddenly looked very angry. "NO!" he shrieked like a seven year-old. "My name's Gippy! GIPPY! GIPPY! GIPPY!"

Danny would have normally thought a ghost that acted like this would be hilarious, but he was actually pretty disturbed.

"All right, 'Gippy'…" Danny said uneasily. "Uh, have you been kept back a few years in school? Like since second grade?"

Gippy looked like he was getting even angrier. "No!" he shrieked loudly again. "My mommy says I'm special!"

Danny was getting really disturbed. "You're a Deathbringer and you have the mentality of a six-year old?"

Gippy looked like he was going to start crying. "Why are you making fun of me?!! You're mean!"

"Oh, please," Danny said. He was starting to realize how pointless this conversation was. He wanted nothing more than to beat the snot out of Gippy and show the Deathbringers how powerful he truly was.

"I'll show you!" Gippy yelled. "I'll tell Mr. Meanie on you!"

"Mr. Meanie?" Danny asked.

"Yeah! He's my friend! He's really big and scary and he's got giant claws and giant teeth! He'll take you and he'll rip into tiny pieces! And then he'll stomp you! And then he'll eat your remains! And then he'll throw you back up! And he'll do it all over again!" Gippy threatened.

Danny was looking worried that he would have to face a monster like that. He started stammering and he could see Gippy was starting to enjoy seeing Danny get very scared.

"Ah ha!" Gippy yelled. "Now, Mr. Meanie, kill him!" He pointed his finger at Danny.

Danny braced himself for the fight with the monster, but there was dead silence. Nothing happened for several seconds. When Danny was finally getting his senses back, he saw Gippy was still pointing at him and still looking very mischievous.

"Uh…is he going the bathroom?" Danny asked.

"NO!" Gippy yelled. "He's right next to me and he's going to eat you!"

Danny looked to Gippy's side and saw nothing. Then Danny started cracking up.

"Oh, I get it!" Danny said. "He's one of your imaginary friends, isn't he?"

Gippy looked very defensive. He started pounding mid air and yelled, "He's not imaginary! He's invisible!"

Danny continued laughing. "Really. Well here's me firing an invisible automatic kill ray at Mr. Meanie."

Danny held out his hand like he was going to fire a beam, and then insisted to Gippy that he fired an "invisible" attack. "Oh, look. Mr. Meanie's dead."

"No he's not!" Gippy said with a wide smile. "He's invisible!"

"You mean invincible?" Danny asked.

Gippy looked angry and then finally had enough. "You're mean! I'm telling!" he yelled.

Gippy disappeared in the cloud of smoke that Noreen disappeared in, and Danny was alone in the hallways once again. Not seeing any more ghosts, Danny reverted back to his human form.

"All right," Danny said. "Noreen looks like she could be some trouble, but Gippy shouldn't be too hard to beat. I mean, how hard can it be to fight a Kindergartener in a grown up ghost's body?"

"Talking to ourselves, are we, Mr. Fenton?" said a familiar voice from behind.

Danny flinched up and turned around slowly. Lancer was standing right behind him and was tapping his foot and his arms were crossed.

"Oh. Uh, Mr. Lancer…I, you see, there were…" Danny stammered.

"Going into the hall without a pass and not even going to the bathroom like you said you were?" Lancer said. "Fenton, that's two wrongs. I think that merits for a Saturday detention."

"W…what?!" Danny yelled.

Lancer pulled a slip out of his pocket. He wrote something on it and handed it to Danny. It read SATURDAY DETENTION at the top in bold print with Danny's name written on a blank line.

"I'll see you on Saturday, Mr. Fenton," Lancer said, walking out of the hall.

Danny groaned and slowly started following. Somehow, he thought getting his revenge would turn out to be harder than he thought.

Just as Danny and Lancer were out of the hall, a ghostly figure emerged from the walls. He was intangible, so there was no way anyone else could see him. Then he started laughing.

"Saturday…" the ghost said. "That's perfect."


	7. Saturday Detention

It was soon Saturday morning. Normally, Danny would be able to sleep in and finally get some time off from school, but not today. Today, he found himself in his dad's car as they were going to school.

Danny had never had a Saturday detention before, nor did he ever hope to have one. And unfortunately for him, he was about to spend six hours with Lancer on a Saturday doing work that would make his regular class work look fun.

"See ya, dad," Danny said as he got out of his car and walked inside the doors to his school.

There was something very awkward about being in school on a Saturday morning. Maybe it was the fact that there were no other students or no lessons going on. Danny didn't think he saw any teachers there, but he knew of at least one.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton, glad to see you showed up," Lancer coldly said when he saw Danny walk in. "Come this way, please."

Lancer led Danny into his classroom and told him to sit in the desk closest to the teacher's one. Reluctantly, Danny sat down.

"All right, Mr. Fenton, here's your assignment for today," Lancer said. "I want you to write a thousand word essay on why students should only go to the bathroom when they have a pass to do so."

Danny banged his fist on the desk. "You've gotta be kidding. How am I supposed to write a thousand word essay on why you should only go to the bathroom when that's what your pass says?"

"That's your problem, not mine, Mr. Fenton," Lancer said in a snobby way. He handed Danny a piece of white lined paper and walked towards the door carrying a few sheets. "I need to make some photocopies of the worksheets for class tomorrow. And if I come back and see your fanny anywhere but on that chair, there's going to be trouble."

Lancer walked out the door but kept his eyes on Danny the entire time. Slowly, he closed the door and started walking down the hall.

As soon as Lancer was out of sight, Danny pushed his pencil and the piece of paper off his desk. He watched as both objects plummeted to the ground. He then made a heavy sigh and slammed the front of his head on the desk. He slowly lifted it up again and put his head in the open palm of his right hand.

"Come on. Why do I have to even be here?" Danny asked. He knew that complaining would do him no good and that no one could even hear him, but it just helped him feel better.

Danny was really getting frustrated. It wasn't even his fault that he wasn't going to the bathroom. Okay, so technically, it _was_, but he was watching out for the greater good of everyone else in the building. Danny was certain that the entire building wouldn't have rather had a murderous ghost walking through the school and getting to all the secret places without much difficulty.

"Forget this," Danny said, promptly deciding he wasn't going to do the assignment. He picked up the pencil and paper off the floor and started writing a message saying that he didn't deserve to be in Saturday detention.

As he was writing, Lancer came back in the room, and he gave an evil smile to Danny, almost like he was enjoying seeing Danny lose an entire day of rest there.

"So, what time was it that you were going to be picked up from here?" Lancer asked as he set all the photocopies of worksheets he had just made down on the desk.

"4:00," Danny coldly answered. "Great way to waste six hours of a Saturday, don't you think?"

Danny passed his glance up to the clock and was upset to see that it was only fifteen minutes since the session had started. Another five hours and forty-five minutes to go.

"I'm afraid I have some news, though," Lancer said, cuffing his hands behind his back. "Due to some problems I just heard of, you won't be going home at 4:00."

"Really?" Danny asked, glad to hear he'd be going home earlier. "What time am I leaving instead?"

"Instead, you are going to be leaving at 9:00," Lancer said with a somewhat malicious face.

Danny could no longer hold in his rage. He started banging on the desk and talking in a loud and aggressive tone.

"What the?..._Nine??!!_ You can't make this stupid Saturday detention last until 9:00! That's almost twice as long! Besides, I'm not even supposed to be here in the first place! Why do I have to stay, anyway?"

"That's the way it is," Lancer said.

Lancer looked down at Danny's paper and was unhappy to see it was mostly blank. He mashed his pointer finger down onto the paper. "Write!"

After issuing this command, Lancer picked up the stack of papers and went to his desk. It looked like he was now correcting things.

As Danny was writing, his mouth opened and his ghost sense suddenly sprung out. He gasped and instinctively shot up out of his chair.

"Sit down!" Lancer yelled at his desk as Danny was on his feet.

"But…"

"Sit!"

Danny groaned and slowly slumped back into his chair. He picked up his pencil and didn't even think about what he was writing; he just hoped to be able to finish up the essay in the time allowed.

What bugged Danny even more is that every couple of minutes or so his ghost sense would go off and Lancer wouldn't even let him move. (Lancer especially didn't let Danny get up out of his chair to use the bathroom)

Time slowly ticked by. Danny was getting so frustrated that his ghost sense was repeatedly going off and there was nothing that he could do about it. Several times Danny's ghost sense went off, and he had to do his best to cover it so that Lancer wouldn't get suspicious.

Several times, Danny thought he saw a ghost flying past the door to the classroom. That just frustrated him even more. He wanted to resist the urge to just run out of the room and battle the ghost that was flying by

Just to make sure Lancer didn't catch his ghost sense, Danny had to repeatedly hide his face by lying his head down on the desk and cuffing his mouth. But sometimes, Danny had no idea how Lancer could miss the puff of blue smoke.

"Geez, that guy's more nearsighted than the teacher in the _Classroom_ games," Danny commented.

The time crawled by very slowly. It came as a huge sigh of relief to Danny when he saw the sun was finally starting to go down. The room got darker and darker, but Lancer seemed unaffected by the change in the light.

Slowly. The time really seemed to be going by much less quickly now. Finally, it was about 8:30…only another half hour.

Danny had long since finished his essay, but Lancer wouldn't accept it until the end of the detention. He recommended Danny proof read it over and over, but Danny didn't really find it necessary and instead tried to think about what he was going to do about the ghost that seemed to be flying around.

Then, Danny realized that the ghost had gone on long enough. He couldn't see the ghost clearly from where he was sitting, but he could see the ghost was about to fire some ectoplasmic energy at him.

Now, Danny didn't care any longer than Lancer was still there and would get in even deeper trouble if he stood up and left, but he didn't have a choice now. Getting up for the first time in several hours, Danny was on his feet and bolted towards the door.

"Fenton!" Lancer yelled.

Danny ignored this and ran out the door and slammed it behind him. He started running full speed after the ghost, trying to find him.

Now with his adrenaline pumping very fast, Danny was running through the deserted halls and looking for the ghost. His ghost sense was going off every couple of steps, which made him very nervous.

Then, out of the wild blue, the ghost popped down from the ceiling and looked Danny straight in the eyes. His light mustache and surprisingly sophisticated looking face burned itself into Danny's retinas.

"Hello, Danny," the ghost said in a French accent.

"Claude…" Danny muttered under his breath.

"Very good, ghost child," Claude said, smiling wickedly. "So, you think it's dark enough as it is outside now? Then I'm sure you won't mind me clipping a few power circuits!"

Claude went intangible and passed through the ceiling again and out of sight while still laughing in his cocky French accent.

Danny snarled a little bit and quickly started running again. He had no idea where Claude was headed, but he knew that if Claude did anything to the circuits, then there would be huge trouble.

"All right. Now I just gotta find him," Danny said to himself softly. He started running away until he felt something tugging at him from the back of his shirt.

"Going somewhere, Mr. Fenton?" said a familiar voice.

Danny gulped. It was Lancer.

"Mr. Fenton, why are you choosing to misbehave now?" Lancer asked.

"I…" Danny stammered.

Then all the lights in the halls abruptly went off, plunging the entire building into darkness.

"Holy Scarlet Letter!" Lancer yelled when the lights went off. "What happened to the electricity? Fenton, we need to get down to the janitor's closet and reboot the electric charger."

"As Dhaos would say, 'What the _HECK_ is _THAT?'_" Danny asked.

"It's something that will bring the power back to the building," Lancer said.

"I figured as much."

Lancer pulled out a flashlight and started leading the way. Because of the pitch darkness in the building, Danny could only see what Lancer was illuminating the front of him. Danny could tell his ghost sense was going off, but he couldn't see anything around him, which was making him very nervous.

Danny's heart was thumping very violently as they kept going on more and more. It might have been from being paranoid, but Danny could have sworn he heard the sounds of ghosts flying right by them from overhead.

"_Grrr…why'd Lancer have to extend my detention until 9:00?" _Danny thought to himself. _"If he just kept it until the normal time we wouldn't be in this situation!"_

At long last, they finally entered the circuit room (which was also the janitor's closet). Lancer opened the door and went over to a metal box on the wall. He opened it up and started hitting what seemed like a random combination of buttons on it.

Out of nowhere, the lights were suddenly back on. As if some invisible finger flipped a switch, the entire room was illuminated. It was a small room with gray walls and lots of bizarre equipment in it.

"Well, now that that's behind us, Fenton, I'd like a word with you," Lancer said as he turned his attention back to Danny.

"What?" Danny asked. He then recalled running out of the Saturday detention room when there was only about half an hour left. "Oh, yeah…well, about that…"

But Danny's problems were just beginning. Because as soon as he opened his mouth to start explaining it, a puffy blue cloud of smoke came from his mouth. It slowly disappeared into the air and caught Lancer's fascination.

"Mr. Fenton, what was that?" Lancer asked. "Is that what you kids are passing around on the way out to the buses and in the bathrooms now?"

"What?...no!" Danny yelled. "I'm not _that_ much of a loser! You see, it's…well, you see, it kind of means that…"

Danny continued stammering, and he had no idea what he was trying to say. Lancer seemed to gradually lose interest as Danny kept trying to find the right words to explain.

"That doesn't matter, Fenton," Lancer said casually. "Because I've got you precisely where I want you."

Then, Lancer started smiling with a very evil and wicked looking sneer. He quickly blinked his eyes, but when they opened up again, Danny saw that his eyes were glowing red.

"You…" Danny said in fear. He slowly started walking backwards until he was pressed against the wall of the room. "You're not Lancer!'


	8. All Five

Lancer began smiling even more evilly than he was before. In a flash, a black and green mist of energy surged from him and took the form of a ghost. Lancer collapsed to the floor after the figure exited his body.

"My, my, my," the newly appearing ghost said as he looked right at Danny. "Aren't we a smart one? I was wondering how long it would take you to really realize how that ghost sense of yours was getting triggered."

"You…" Danny hissed.

The ghost continued laughing. He looked like the most terrifying ghost Danny had seen in a while. He had fairly strong looking armor on and his eyes were a crimson shade of red that eerily disturbed Danny of blood. He looked truly terrifying just by looking at him, with spikes sticking up from his armor on the should blades and an almost demonic smile that could give an older person a heart attack.

"So, did we enjoy our Saturday detention?" the ghost asked.

"Who…who are you?" Danny asked, trying not to sound scared, but this ghost's mere presence made that difficult.

The ghost started chuckling again. "I could have your life right now if I wanted, kid. You think you can fight me? I doubt you'd last two minutes in a fight with me."

"You want to bet?!" Danny yelled, balling up his fist and getting ready to bash it in the ghost's face. "You're calling _me_ scared when you're too much of a sissy to tell me who you are?!"

The ghost started smiling wickedly again. "It is I, Arkov, the leader of the Deathbringers," he said maliciously.

"Arkov," Danny said. "So, you're the one responsible for killing my two friends?" He pointed his finger at Arkov in a hateful way. "You're not gonna get away with that! I swear!"

"Oh, I think I am," Arkov said, not taking the evil grin off his face. Saying this, he snapped his fingers.

As Arkov snapped his fingers, more clouds of black and dark green started forming but didn't take up a lot of space individually. There were four clouds, two on each side of Arkov. When they clouds cleared, they took the shape of very familiar ghosts.

The other four figures to emerge from the clouds were the other Deathbringers: Claude, the French sounding one; Noreen, the hideous, elderly woman ghost with a bad attitude; Jerel, the fat ghost who was obsessed with every single sport in the world; and Gipperalson (or as he preferred to be called, Gippy), the ghost who looked grown up but really had the mind of a four year old.

"I have called my other Deathbringers with me to offer you a wonderful deal," Arkov said, almost completely ignoring his four henchmen around him.

"Yeah?" Danny asked. "What's that? Something to rip every single molecule in your body apart one by one?"

"No," Arkov said. "Better. My Deathbringers and I want you to join us."

Danny scoffed. "As if! I've already heard about this plan of yours, and I ain't siding with you guys!"

"Why not?" Claude asked.

"You're not actin' too smaht," Noreen said.

"Will you just shut up?" Danny scolded. "You kill my two best friends in the whole world for no reason, and now you come crying to me and want me to help you guys fight?"

"Yes," Arkov said.

"Why should I?"

"You'll obtain great power if you side with us," Arkov said. "And in case you rejected that offer, the murder of your two friends was just a warning of what will happen to the rest of your loved ones, and eventually, you."

"No way!" Danny yelled, still rejecting the offer. "You can ask me as many times as you'd like, but I'll never help you do whatever it is you're trying to do!"

Arkov sighed. "Such a shame. You could have been great. Well then, if you're not with us, you're against us."

Arkov stepped backwards but never took his eyes off Danny. "Deathbringers…assemble back at headquarters. Claude, you stay here and finish off Danny."

"But of course," Claude said.

In a cloud of smoke that appeared around each Deathbringer (except for Claude) they were all gone, leaving Danny alone in the janitor's closet with Claude and an unconscious Lancer.

"Ghost Boy, I'm going to make this quick and painful," Claude said when he and Danny were alone.

Instead of replying, Danny fired a blast at Claude. "First rule of thumb: the bad guys can never keep their mouths shut. Haven't you realized that now?"

Claude scowled. He held out both of his hands and started forming a bright green ball. He fired it from his hands and it was sent flying right at Danny.

Danny ducked out of the way and the ball hit the wall behind him, searing it. Danny promptly got up and got ready to counter using his own blast of energy, but Claude picked up Lancer's unconscious body and used it as a human shield.

"Come on, Danny," Claude taunted. "I thought you hated this teacher of yours. Come on, try to hit me. You won't really care if you hit him instead, would you?"

"Newsflash," Danny replied, "I'm not like you guys. I actually have respect for human lives."

Danny jumped up into the air and started hovering and flew right over Claude's head and landed behind him. When Claude was still stunned from this, he grabbed Claude's shoulders and turned him around forcefully. Danny then proceeded to punch Claude in the face several times.

Claude got a little dizzy and dropped Lancer's unconscious body. He fell on the floor, and just as he was getting up, Danny fired another blast at Claude's head, knocking him onto the floor again.

Danny tried looking around and saw that the janitor's closet didn't have much that would prove useful in this fight. In fact, the small space proved to make the fight even more difficult.

Danny thought he won and was getting ready to leave the janitor's closet until Claude shot up and decided to get some revenge. He grabbed Danny's head from behind and took him over to a wall right next to the circuit breaker. He started bashing Danny's head into some of the thick power cords, hoping to break one of them and zap Danny.

After taking three smashes against the wall, Danny started showing some resistance and fought back. He pushed his hands up against the wall and used all his strength to make sure his face didn't get bashed again.

Claude got more and more frustrated that Danny seemed to still have plenty of strength left in him for fighting.

Danny finally was able to break free from Claude's grasp and he flew out of the room. Claude followed, and soon, he and Danny were in the empty hallways of the school.

"Give it up, kid!" Claude yelled.

"Um…how about no?" Danny suggested as he flew back into Lancer's classroom.

Claude followed, and the two of them were now fighting in a more spacious place.

Danny flew over to the chalkboard and picked up one of the erasers and threw it at Claude, hoping it would distract him long enough to give him the advantage.

Claude got hit right in the face with one of the erasers, but didn't seem too affected by it.

Realizing that his last attempt didn't go over too well, Danny flew to the back of the room and tried picking up a globe that was sitting in a corner. He picked the heavy sphere shaped item up and threw it at Claude as hard as he could.

The globe hit Claude in the face and promptly fell to the ground. Claude was a bit knocked back by it, which gave Danny an extra couple of seconds.

Danny proceeded by firing more and more ectoplasmic energy at Claude while still being stunned. Claude got hit several times and fell to the ground, but he was back up in no time.

In order to get a higher angle and better view, Danny jumped up onto one of the desks. Claude did likewise and he started jumping desks very quickly, trying to get next to the one Danny was on.

Danny fired a blast of energy from the desk he was standing on, but Claude ducked out of the way and dodged it without a lot trouble.

When Claude was only one desk ahead of Danny, Danny started jumping to other desks, with Claude firing blasts of energy after him.

Danny instead had to start jumping from desk to desk as he just narrowly avoided all the blasts Claude was sending after him. At the end, Danny had to make a great dive off the desks and back onto the floor.

Claude jumped off the desk as well, and soon he and Danny were on the floor. Danny got up quickly, as did Claude, and the two of them started throwing fast punches at each other.

Claude got the upper hand after a while and gave Danny a hard blow to the stomach. Danny bent over in pain and Claude gave him an uppercut, which knocked Danny into the air and back onto the ground.

Danny slowly moaned, but Claude started looming right over him and started charging a ball of ectoplasmic energy in his hand, ready to fire it into Danny's face.

"Au revoire," Claude taunted.

Danny looked up and saw something on the wall right next to Claude.

"I hope that's French for, "Fire!" Danny remarked.

Using his last bit of strength, Danny fired one more blast at the object on the wall. It was a fire extinguisher, which immediately started spraying onto Claude. Claude screamed as he got engulfed in the solution from the fire extinguisher, which promptly gave Danny the chance to recover some of his strength.

Danny got up and started running around the corner, trying to hide from Claude. His logic was that if Claude couldn't see him, then he could attack Claude from a hidden location and there wouldn't be a thing Claude could do about it.

Thinking quickly, as Claude tried to get the fire extinguisher solution off himself, Danny ran behind Lancer's desk and hid there. When Claude finally got all the solution off, he looked around and was a bit disturbed to see Danny was nowhere in sight.

Slowly, Claude started making his way around the room and looked for Danny, but it was easy to see he was nervous about being attacked.

Then, Danny had an idea. Going intangible, he reached up into one of the drawers under Lancer's desk until he felt what he was looking war. He pulled it out of the desk while still being intangible so no one would feel a thing.

It was the knife Lancer kept in his drawer when they were dissecting frogs earlier that week. He pulled it out and took careful aim. Then, when he had Claude in plain view, he threw the small knife.

The knife hit Claude in the back of his neck and Claude started shrieking in pain.

"GAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Claude yelled. He held out both of his hands and clenched his fists in pain. He fell on his knees and started slowly bending backwards so he was facing the ceiling while still being on his knees.

Then, something happened that Danny wasn't expecting. Black lights started spurting up from Claude, almost like mini lightning bolts. He started shrieking louder and louder as the black, zig-zag shaped lights continued shooting up to the ceiling. Then, Claude appeared to be disappearing.

"Eeeeeeeee…" Claude weakly hissed. "What a tragic way to go…"

After several silent and tense seconds, Claude was gone as if he had been completely vaporized. Danny was breathless.

"D…did I just _kill_ him?" Danny asked. "Can ghosts die just like people can? If so, then how? I mean, aren't they already dead? Where can they go?..."

Danny sat in complete silence. He couldn't believe the turnout of the fight he had just survived. He never thought he'd have killed an enemy in order to win a fight.

But this was just the beginning.


	9. Making a Choice 9

Relieved that the fight was over, but still very stunned by the turnout of it, Danny let out a huge breath of relief and promptly returned to his human form. The classroom was now completely dark, but it was evident that there had just been a fight there.

After a long time, Danny heard someone coming. It sounded almost zombie-like, and then a figure walked into the classroom. It was Lancer, and he looked like he had just come back from partying all night. He had to hold on to the edge of the doorway just to keep himself standing.

"Uh…what happened?" Lancer asked, his words slurring together. "What time is it?"

"It's pretty late," Danny said, not wanting to give Lancer an exact time.

Lancer looked up at the clock above the chalkboard. "Sweet gadzooks, it's late!" Lancer exclaimed. "Well, Fenton, I think you've completed your Saturday detention. You may leave now."

Without saying a word, Danny walked past Lancer and out the door. Lancer looked back at Danny as he walked out.

"We won't go somewhere without a pass again, are we, Fenton?" Lancer asked after Danny.

But Danny didn't respond. He heard Lancer's question but he could have hardly cared less about answering.

Danny finally got home a while later. He went over to his bed and collapsed on it face down. He was so exhausted after the day he just had, but he knew he still had other problems to deal with.

He was lucky to have survived the fight with Claude, and Claude wasn't exactly an easy match. Danny hoped he wouldn't have to fight the other three Deathbringers (Along with Arkov), but he thought that if he wanted to completely avenge Sam and Tucker, then that would be what he would have to do.

Danny eventually went to sleep that night, but it was not a very comforting one. Now that one of the Deathbringers was actually dead, the other Deathbringers would probably be after him more than ever.

"Man…" Danny said as he stuffed his face into the pillow. "Why the heck did they want me anyway? What were they trying to do that they needed me to do?"

Danny went to sleep with those worries on his mind. He woke up the next morning to a completely clouded day. As he crawled out of bed, he noticed Jazz was seeming perkier than normal.

"Hey little brother!" Jazz said happily.

"What are you so happy about?" Danny glumly asked.

"Don't you remember? In a couple of nights I'm going to be going to my school's award ceremony! I'll finally get all those medals and certificates for all my hard work, and you're going to be there to see it!"

Danny groaned. "You don't have to remind me. Besides, why do I even have to go in the first place?"

"What?" Jazz asked. "You mean _you don't want to see me get those awards_?!"

"I'd give you an honest answer, but I don't want to make you cry."

Scowling, Jazz stormed out of his room and down the stairs, leaving Danny in a sour mood.

"Yeah, I don't know how you stand getting all those awards and cheers," he coldly said. "And to think I was worried about silly problems like getting revenge and trying to protect my neck from a bunch of hostile ghosts."

The day slowly wore by and Danny could never get those cold thoughts off his shoulders. After what he did to Claude…normally, he would feel guilty about taking the life of something, even a ghost. But not Claude. No, Danny thought it was a good thing that he killed a member of the group that killed his friends.

Danny began imagining the Deathbringers realizing how strong he truly was after seeing that he killed Claude. He pictured the Deathbringers at their knees and begging for Danny to spare them. And with a sick grin, Danny imagined himself refusing to spare their lives.

Danny's thoughts of revenge were soon interrupted by a tap on the window. He jumped, being started from the sudden sound. He looked out the window and saw Mist floating right outside.

"Mist?" Danny asked aloud. "What does she want?"

Danny transformed into his ghostly alter ego and went intangible as he sailed out the window. He was hovering in front of Mist, looking very confused.

"Good to see you're okay," Mist complimented. "I was getting worried."

"Worried?" Danny asked. "About what?"

"About what happened between you and Arkov. I'm amazed you had the strength to actually overpower a Deathbringer."

"Man, are those guys going to be sorry they messed with me!" Danny raged as he clenched up both of his fists. "Me defeating Claude was just the beginning of it! I'll be sure to take on the other four and make sure they meet the same end!"

"Danny, it's not that easy," Mist said sadly. "Those other Deathbringers are going to be just as tough, or maybe even tougher, than Claude was."

"Doesn't matter," Danny said. "I'll take on all four of the others and make them regret killing Sam and Tucker!"

"Well, you _do_ seem rather strong. Maybe it was right for Arkov to select you."

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.

"Don't worry about it," Mist said. "It's nothing."

Danny gave that 'whatever' look and said, "Well, if you don't mind, I think I'll be on my way to take on those other four."

"Wait, you can't do that!" Mist yelled, freezing Danny in his tracks. "And why not?"

"You barely know your way around the Deathbringers' Lair, which puts you at an automatic disadvantage. And not only that, but you only could beat Claude because he was alone. If you tried taking on more than one at once, you'd be dead within a minute."

Danny was definitely having an internal struggle, but in the end, it turned out Mist was right.

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "Okay. If those guys want me so badly for whatever reason, then they'll come to me. All I have to do is wait."

"Don't get too cocky," Mist warned. "If you don't watch yourself, you'll end up dead."

"If I die, then it's going to be a proud death," Danny promised.

Mist sighed. "Just don't let yourself get carried away. Those Deathbringers are surprisingly strong fighters. Make one mistake and it's over for you."

"I'll be fine," Danny insisted. He flew back into his house and changed back into his regular teenaged self.

No sooner did Danny go back to his normal self did his mom come into his room, looking very serious.

"Danny, I have something very important to tell you."

"What's up?"

"Sam and Tucker's parents just called. Sam and Tucker are going to be having a memorial service in two days and their parents want you to speak at it."

Danny's eyes widened. "Me? They want _me_ to speak?"

"Yes."

"As in…go up to the front of the church, look at everyone in the audience and make some big speech about them?"

"That's what they meant, Danny."

"But I'm not a very good public speaker. And besides, they all think it's _my_ fault Sam and Tucker died. Why would they want me to speak anyway?"

"Danny," Maddie said, sounding sympathetic, yet annoyed, "Can you please just do this for them? If you really think they're mad at you, maybe saying a few good words about their children will change their mind about you."

Danny sighed. "I need some time to think about it," he said.

Danny would end up having to take the rest of the night to think about whether or not he wanted to speak. He was really nervous about making big speeches, but this was something entirely different. Now he was going to be making a speech about his friends and remembering them out loud. It was going to be sad, and although Danny would never admit it to anyone, he was actually a little worried he would break down and cry in front of everyone.

These past few days had been the most tragic in Danny's whole life. He wasn't ready to recollect all of the fond memories of Sam and Tucker and then speak on their behalf at a memorial ceremony only a few days after their abrupt deaths.

Danny went to sleep thinking about it that night. It was a hard decision and he had to weigh all the options and their benefits and drawbacks.

"Come on," Danny said as he tried going to sleep. He was talking to himself, which was a clear sign that he was driving himself nuts with the matter at hand. "You want to be strong enough to take on the Deathbringers, don't you? How are you going to be strong enough to take them on if you're not even strong enough to say a few words in memory of your two best friends?"

Danny rolled over. "Oh, whatever. It's not like it takes _physical_ strength to speak at a memorial service. As long as I got my fists and my powers, those Deathbringers will still lose, whether or not I speak at that service."

Danny rolled over again. "But Sam and Tucker were always good to me and were great friends. I guess saying a few words on their behalf is the least I could do."

Once again Danny rolled over. "Grrrrr…what do they care?! They're dead. I'm never going to see them again in my whole life, so what are they going to do if I don't say anything?"

Danny still struggled with his ideas as he went to sleep. He woke up the next morning and was still struggling in his mind about what he should do. He weighed his thoughts over and over but could never come up with a solid solution.

It was still far too early for Danny to decide what he wanted to do. He was so furious at the fact that at only age fourteen he would have to go up in front of an entire church full of people and make a speech reflecting on the tragic deaths of his two best friends.

"What am I even going to say if I decide to go through with it?" Danny asked. "They can't really expect me to go up there and act like the most charismatic guy in the world, especially with what I'm talking about, can they?"

Danny even started debating whether or not he should tell everyone what really was going on. Should he tell everyone that Sam and Tucker were really murdered by an organization of ghosts and that he was really a ghost and that he was going to hunt down the murderers no matter what? Should he even reveal his ghostly half to everyone to prove he was serious?

Danny had too many thoughts to even come close to going to sleep. He tried to weigh each and every single idea individually, but it call came back to the same answer: "I don't know what to do."

Danny soon decided that he shouldn't do it at all. Sam and Tucker were gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. Saying they were great friends and that he would miss them wasn't going to bring them back. As far as he was concerned, going through and speaking at the service would just be more of an emotional strain on him, and that was the last thing he needed, given the circumstances of what he was trying to accomplish.

Shortly after waking up the next morning, Danny walked down to the kitchen table and saw his family eating breakfast together. But none of them said anything to Danny as he walked in. Danny couldn't tell whether they were nervous about saying something to make him angry or if they were uncomfortable to say anything.

"Danny, I know it's hard for you, but…" Maddie started.

"Mom, please," Danny said, putting up both his hands and waving his palm-sides back and forth. "Spare me the lecture. I've already made up my mind."

Everyone listened closely.


	10. Remembering

Danny took a deep breath as he was ready to reveal his decision about whether or not he should speak at Sam and Tucker's memorial service.

"I guess…I guess I could say a few words to them," Danny said, looking very uneasy.

All of Danny's family members looked very relieved. They started smiling brightly and looked like they were sure Danny had made the right decision.

"Danny, I'm very proud of you," Maddie said. "I know it may be hard to go up there and talk, but think of it as the last time you'll be able to say anything to either of them."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Danny said.

Jazz ran over to Danny and put her hand on his shoulder. She gave him a warm smile. "I'm proud of you, little brother."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said. For some reason, even though he knew he was doing the honorable thing, he didn't feel any better. In fact, agreeing to speak seemed to only make him more miserable on the inside.

"The service is in two days," Maddie said. "So you'd better start writing that speech and know it like the back of your hand right away!"

_Great,_ Danny thought coldly, _Another thing to worry about._

Danny was really starting to realize that he was not acting like himself. He seemed much more violent and his personality overall seemed a lot darker. He felt like he was gradually losing control of his emotions, and for some reason, he felt that would be his downfall.

Danny thought that maybe the thoughts of revenge and payback he was feeling were never so intense and that they were getting to his brain in far too great quantities. He deduced that if he was going to get rid of those thoughts and finally return to his old self, then he was going to need to finish off all the Deathbringers. (And knowing he could kill them gave him all the more confidence)

Two days later, it was finally time for the memorial service. Danny was dressed in a very handsome way, wearing khaki pants, a blazer, and polished black shoes. Jack was wearing almost the exact same thing, and Jazz and Maddie were wearing very stylish dresses and high heels. (Danny also thought they were wearing way too much makeup)

When they all finally got to the church, the sound of organ music playing in the background could be heard faintly. Some guests had already showed up and were sitting in the pews silently, waiting for the service to start.

On the altar were pictures of Sam and Tucker smiling at the camera and laughing. Seeing the pictures brought good memories back to Danny. It made him miss his friends more. And it also fed his hatred and contempt for the Deathbringers.

Danny and his family sat in the pews right in front of the altar. Sitting in the pew across from them were Sam and Tucker's parents, also dressed well for the occasion. They gave a pleasant wave to Danny's parents, but an almost cold glare to Danny himself.

Danny tried to shrug the cold looks off. The ceremony eventually began with an opening song and then a few words from the priest.

While the priest was speaking, Danny stared in complete awe and absorbing everything he was saying. He looked down at the floor at some parts, and when he looked up one time, he saw a trail of tears running down Jazz's face.

Danny raised an eyebrow. _What's** she **crying for? **Her **friends aren't the ones who are dead, _Danny thought to himself.

"…and now, a friend of the deceased ones today would like to say a few words," the priest said as he looked at Danny towards the front of the church.

Taking a deep breath and gulping, Danny got up and started walking up the aisle. He could feel everyone's eyes watching him and he felt like there was a lot of pressure on him. He really hoped he wouldn't mess it up.

Danny stepped onto the altar and over a microphone behind a podium. He cleared his throat and pulled out his speech from his blazer's pocket.

"Sam and Tucker were really great friends to me," Danny started, looking at the notes and not at the audience. "They were never anything but good to me. They helped me with my school work, they helped me with my problems, and they even helped me with things that you wouldn't even believe."

The audience fell silent. Danny soon started feeling a bit more comfortable and got a bit more assertive with his speech. He started delivering it more confidently.

"They were the best friends I could have ever asked for. They always stuck by my side. We would have our arguments, but there were always there for me when I needed them and they were always quick to forgive. I remember one time when…"

Danny continued making his speech and he even had to admit to himself that he was doing a pretty good job. He looked up from time to time and saw several people wiping their eyes. He never expected anyone to cry from his speech.

"…now Sam and Tucker are gone, and there's no way they're ever coming back," Danny said, getting ready to wrap up his speech. "It won't be easy to get on without them. They truly were great friends, and I'm sorry to say I didn't realize how lucky I was to have them until that horrible day when I found out what had happened to them. So forever in my heart…Sam, and Tucker. Good night."

Danny gave one quick nod to everyone and walked out from behind the podium and off the altar. He sat back down in his pew and let out a huge breath of relief. Danny saw that now Jazz was sobbing beyond control after his speech.

The rest of the time wore on. Danny was proud of himself for going through and making the speech, but there was still that malicious and hateful feeling that was settling in the back of his mind.

The ceremony was about to end until Danny noticed a cloud of blue smoke coming out of his mouth.

"Oh, no," he muttered.

Danny looked around until he spotted a ghostly figure outside the church. The figure was none other than Noreen, the ugly ghost who was the only female member of the Deathbringers.

"You…" Danny said. He quickly turned to his parents. "Mom! Dad! I gotta go to the bathroom!"

Without even letting his parents say a word, Danny was up and ran to a room behind the altar. He ran out the back door and was now outside. After getting out of the church, Danny transformed into his ghostly alter-ego. It only took him a few more seconds to find Noreen.

"Well kid, that was an amazingly corny speech," Noreen insulted.

"Oh, so you decided to let me talk before ruining the whole thing?" Danny asked.

"It was the least I could do after what I did to your two friends," Noreen said rudely.

Danny's eyes widened. Suddenly, his eyes became more hating than they ever were before and his fists were clenched. His teeth were grit to the extent that they could shatter from the force of them being pushed against each other.

"You…" Danny hissed. "_You're_ the one who actually carried out the murders?! I'm _**really** _gonna make you suffer now!"

Noreen started smiling and laughed. "Don't get too cocky, kid," she said.

Right beside Noreen, a puff of black smoke appeared, and when it cleared, Danny was staring right at Jerel. Right after Jerel was in plain sight, another puff of smoke appeared, and Gippy emerged from it.

Danny looked worried seeing the three of them together, but he tried to keep his energy and confidence up. He wasn't about to let any of them beat him.

"Behold the power of Pokemon cards!" Gippy yelled as he pulled out his hand. Trading cards materialized in his hand and he threw them at Danny as if they were Frisbees.

Danny ducked out of the way of all of them, and when he turned around, he saw that the cards were going right through the trees they hit, slicing them like a chainsaw going through paper.

"Whoa," Danny said. "I've seen some loud and annoying kids playing with those, but I've never seen them use 'em like that _once_."

"Cut the smart remarks," Noreen said. She held out her hand and a ball of green ectoplasmic energy started forming in her hand.

"I don't think so!" Danny yelled as he fired one at her before she could attack him.

"Penalty!" Jerel yelled. "I'm throwing a flag in!"

Jerel formed a thin, yellow flag-looking like object in his hand and threw it at Danny. In mid air the flag opened up and mini razor blades came flying out and were heading straight for him.

Danny went intangible and the blades passed right through him. He became tangible again and hovered over to Jerel and began barraging him with punches.

Almost like some sort of sixth sense was going off, Danny turned around and saw Gippy and Noreen ready to attack him. He shot into the air just as they fired. By doing so, he effectively dodged their attacks. But because the blasts of energy missed him, the blasts continued going and hit Jerel instead.

Jerel was knocked onto the ground. He slowly started getting up, but he was back on the ground again when Danny gave him a hard bash in the jaw.

After putting a finishing attack on Jerel, Danny turned around and saw Noreen and Gippy once again getting ready to attack him. As soon as they fired, Danny put up his hands and formed a shield around himself, rendering the blasts useless.

When the blasts were no longer a threat, Danny dropped the shield around himself and got back into the fight. He flew over to Noreen and grabbed her by the head and ascended into the air. When he was over fifty feet high, he threw her down on the ground with all the force he had.

"That's only a _taste_ of what you deserve!" Danny said coldly when he saw Noreen get slammed into the pavement below.

Danny then looked down and saw Gippy looking like he was getting ready to attack. Danny tried firing a blast from up in the air, but when he fired the first one, Gippy jumped out of the way with no trouble. Obviously, Danny was going to have to try fighting Gippy at a closer range.

Danny started heading towards the ground and tapped his feet softly on it. He looked right at Gippy and anticipated an attack.

Gippy started smiling with a nasty grin. "Now you're gonna get it!" he threatened. He started squeezing his fists and his face began scrunching up. He even started sweating a little.

Danny actually grew kind of concerned. "Uh…are you constipated or something?" Danny asked.

"No!" Gippy yelled. "I'm transforming into a super hero! Like Batman! Or Superman! Or James Bond!"

Danny normally would have been laughing at how inept his enemy was, but knowing Gippy worked in an organization that plotted (and succeeded) to kill Sam and Tucker, he wanted nothing more than to just annihilate him.

Danny fired one more blast from his hand and knocked Gippy onto the ground. Danny then took a deep breath in and was ready to unleash his most devastating attack to finish the three Deathbringers off: his ghostly wail.

But just as Danny was ready to blow the other Deathbringers away, he heard a cold laugh from behind. Danny turned around and saw Arkov hovering in the air, and he had captured Danny's family members. Jack, Maddie and Jazz looked down on Danny with terror in their eyes.

"Arkov!" Danny yelled. "Let them go! NOW!"

Arkov laughed. "I don't think you're in any position to call the shots, kid," Arkov said. "I think these fine family members of yours will like it much more in lair. Don't you think so?"

"I said let them go!" Danny yelled.

"No," Arkov bluntly said. "I'm taking them back with me to my lair. If you want them to be spared, then I'd suggest you come and get them back from me."

Danny was furious, but he didn't know what to say. He knew that no matter what he said, Arkov would only taunt and mock him about it again.

"So, you've got two hours to come to my lair and side with me," Arkov said. "Or these fine people just _might_ meet the same fate as your friends."

"Two hours?!" Danny yelled. "If you lay a finger on them, you're gonna regret it!"

Arkov laughed. "We'll see about that. Noreen! Jerel! Gippy! Come!"

Danny turned around and the three Deathbringers he thought he defeated slowly got up. They looked pretty beaten, but they started hovering in the air right next to Arkov. When all three of them were around Arkov, they flew away. Danny was left staring in complete horror as he saw his loved ones getting carried away to Arkov's lair.

Arkov's laugh could be heard rattling the sky as he and the surviving Deathbringers flew away, as could the screams of Jack, Maddie and Jazz.


	11. Saving the Family

Before I begin, I want to thank soccergurl for that last review. While I'm definitely getting MUCH fewer reviews than I hoped, I'm perfectly happy as long as I at least getting them. Please keep the reviews coming and thank you soccergurl.

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Knowing that his whole family was in danger and having only two hours to rescue them from Arkov's clutches, Danny bolted back home and ran down into the basement. He deployed the vehicle for traveling through the Ghost Zone and was on his way to the lair.

"Arkov…you are going to be _so_ sorry you messed with me!" Danny threatened.

Danny was really surprising himself. He had never felt this much hatred or vengeance towards anything in his whole life. But now he didn't care. His two best friends had been killed and the same person responsible had now kidnapped his family. Arkov had gone too far, and Danny was going to make sure that Arkov would pay.

Before long, Danny saw the lair of the Deathbringers in sight. Mashing his teeth together and squinting his eyes at the place, he stopped the vehicle just outside the fort. He transformed into his ghostly form and flew into the lair. It was a sickening thought to him just knowing his loved ones were trapped in there.

Danny ran into the lair and wasn't distracted by the evil presence in it this time. He ran through all the long, twisting corridors and tried to find any of his family members who the Deathbringers were holding hostage.

After running through the dark, seemingly endless halls for a very long time, Danny found the room Jazz was in. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one in it.

"So, ya decided to come here after all," said a rude, older woman's voice.

Danny turned to the side and Noreen was standing there, her ghostly smirk giving Danny the creeps. She smiled, revealing two rows of yellowing, uneven teeth.

"Look, if you don't want to meet the same fate your French guy did, then why don't you just back off and leave my family alone?" Danny threatened. "I'm not taking part in your little cult or whatever, so give it up."

"Heh," Noreen smirked. "You pathetic kid. You're making a big mistake."

"Yeah?" Danny said. "Well, you just made an even bigger mistake by putting my family in danger. Last chance. Let Jazz go!"

"I don't think so, kid."

"Fine! Have it your way."

Danny held out his hand and fired a blast of energy at Noreen. It hit Noreen in the face and knocked her back. Jazz screamed in terror as she saw a fight about to begin.

Noreen fell on her back, but she was up again in a little while. She slowly growled getting up, but before she could do anything, Danny flew over to her and grabbed her. He proceeded to slamming her face into a wall over and over.

It looked like things were over for Noreen until she formed a giant ghostly shield around herself and blew Danny away with it. Danny got smashed onto the opposite wall and fell flat on the ground.

"Danny!" Jazz screamed as she saw her brother in pain.

Danny moaned as Noreen trotted over to him. She held out her hand and got ready to fire a blast of energy right into his face, but he went intangible just in time, causing the blast to pass right through him.

The blast hit the floor, creating a mini explosion. Once the explosion passed, Danny became tangible again and was back on his feet.

"Okay, I really don't have time for this," Danny said. He started firing a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the ceiling and cut out a square chunk of it. The tile fell and fell flat on Noreen's head, knocking her unconscious.

"Danny!" Jazz yelled again.

Turning over to his sister, Danny ran to Jazz and started to untie her. He was breathing heavily after the fight, but he was okay now.

"Jazz, you all right?" Danny asked.

Jazz was trying to get back her breath. She had never seen a fight that close before, and a lot of the time she was worried that one of the blasts would accidentally hit her.

"I think so," Jazz was finally able to say.

Danny sympathetically helped her to the ground. When they were both back on two feet, Danny looked very stern.

"Okay, get out of here as quickly as possible. Get to the exit and hop in the car outside this place, all right? Don't leave from there until I get back!" Danny commanded.

"Wait, you're not coming back with me?" Jazz asked.

"No," Danny said. "Mom and dad are still somewhere, and with these freaks running around, our parents are in danger."

"Danny, do you know who those people are?"

Danny stopped for a moment as he heard Jazz's question. Suddenly his mind was thrown into wonder and confusion. He didn't know what to answer.

"…No," Danny decided to finally tell Jazz. He decided it would be better if he didn't tell anyone about the situation he was in with the Deathbringers. He thought it would only bring about worry and other negative effects with him.

"All right," Jazz said. She sounded like she knew Danny was either not telling him something or lying. "I'll be waiting in the car."

Jazz ran out of the room, but Danny stayed in there. When he was sure she was out safely, he ran out of the room as well and started looking for his remaining family members.

Danny ran into several rooms without any luck. All the rooms were empty and had no sign of anyone in it; not a family member of Deathbringer in sight.

Danny was really getting tired of going into one room after another and not seeing anyone. He was getting exasperated as he just went into the fifteenth room in a row without finding anyone before he turned around. As he turned around, he saw a dart go flying past his head amazingly fast.

"Whoa!" Danny screamed. He jumped back as he saw the dart hit a wall and get stuck in there with no trouble.

Stammering, Danny turned to where the dart came from and saw Jerel standing there, looking gravely disappointed that he missed.

"Booooooo!" Jerel yelled. "You cheated by moving the target!"

Danny scowled. "Jerel, what have you guys done with my family?!"

"Your family?" Jerel asked. "You mean this family?"

Jerel moved out of the way, showing Maddie tied up behind him. She struggled to break free, but to no avail.

"Such a pity that that's you're mother," Jerel said. "She wouldn't even be good for a high school extreme knitting club coach."

"What did you say?!" Danny yelled.

"I'll say!" Maddie snapped. "How dare you call me that ghost's mother, you sports obsessed freak?!"

Danny glared from the comment his mom just made, but he found it understandable enough that she didn't believe he was her son. (And he didn't dare go into his human form to prove it)

"Listen," Danny said, "even though she's _not_ my mom that gives you no right to talk about her like that."

Jerel started laughing. "You can deny using steroids all you want, but the press still knows you do."

"Will you just stop it with those annoying sports analogies? Sheesh, you're worse than that kid at school who keeps comparing everything to video games." Danny criticized.

"Stop?" Jerel asked. "No way!"

Without saying another word, Jerel held out his hand and formed a basketball in it. Although it looked perfectly normal, Danny was sure there was something very dangerous about it.

"Three pointer!" Jerel yelled. Spikes suddenly shot out from the surface of the basketball and he threw it similarly to the way a player making a foul shot throws it. The ball was heading for Danny, but Danny held out his hand and fired a blast of energy at the ball, destroying it on contact.

"Off the back and onto the court," Danny said, putting his hands on his hips.

Jerel scowled and held out both of his hands in this time. He formed a baseball bat in each one of them and started swinging them around as if they were lighter than Styrofoam.

"Mind if I use your head for some batting practice?" Jerel asked.

"Uh…yeah, I do, actually," Danny bluntly replied. He fired a blast of energy at Jerel, but Jerel moved a bat up and blocked it. The baseball bat he was holding was able to absorb the blast with little trouble.

"Oh, too bad," Jerel said.

Jerel began approaching Danny and swung the bats around so fast Danny could barely see him swinging at all. He had to move very quickly in order to not be hit by the bats and be rendered unconscious.

Jerel didn't seem to be slowing down at all, despite the fact he was swinging the bats insanely fast. That worried Danny, because if Jerel wasn't getting tired, then Danny probably wouldn't be able to land a hit on him.

Danny finally took a risk and fired a blast at Jerel while he was swinging both bats around. The blast hit Jerel and knocked him onto the ground.

Thinking quickly, Danny tried to run over and grab one of the bats, and he succeeded. Now he had a bat, and so did Jerel.

Danny was about to beat Jerel over the head with the bat he stole, but Jerel rolled over at the last moment, causing Danny to smash the bat into the floor. Jerel was up again before Danny could even realize he missed.

Jerel was about to bash Danny with the bat until Danny lifted it up at the last minute and put it horizontally over his head, successfully parrying Jerel's swing.

"You can't keep fouling off balls, kid," Jerel said as he tried to push Danny's bat down.

Thinking fast, Danny went intangible and moved out of the way of the bat. This caused Jerel to keep pushing down, but since he was now pushing against nothing, he fell forward on the floor. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Danny was going to hit him, so he tried rolling out of the way, but it didn't work. Danny was able to slam the bat onto Jerel…right in between his legs.

Jerel moaned in pain and he clutched his "hurt spot" and started squirming around like a worm. Danny held back laughter. Instead, he put on a smug grin and put his hands on his hips. He enjoyed seeing Jerel in pain.

"You were saying?" Danny asked in reply to what Jerel had said only a few moments before.

Jerel looked like he was having a hard time breathing, he was in so much pain. Danny started charging up a blast of energy in his hand and got ready to fire it at Jerel's head and finish him until a voice broke up the action.

"Hey! Just because you saved me from that sports freak doesn't change a thing! You're still gonna get it the next time I see you around the house."

Danny turned around and saw Maddie was still there and looking very seriously at him.

"_Oh, right,_" Danny thought to himself. _"I gotta make sure mom gets out of here okay."_

Danny went over to his mom and picked her up, only to be greeted with an ear shattering screech.

"Put me down!" Maddie screamed. "Put me down, you vile group of particles!"

"Oh, put a sock in it," Danny said carelessly as he continued carrying his mom away. (It felt really good to say it, since normally he couldn't without getting in trouble)

"What did you say to me?!" Maddie yelled.

"Are you deaf or something?" Danny asked as he continued carrying her away.

Maddie started growling louder. "Put me down, you evil ghost! Where are you taking me anyway?!"

Danny gently set Maddie down on the ground and untied her. When she was untied, she stood up again. Danny promptly pointed behind her to a large door.

"The exit," he answered. "Your Fenton vehicle is out there. Our daughter is already in there, so no need to worry. Just stay there and wait until I say it's okay, all right?"

Maddie snarled. She hated the idea of having a ghost tell her what to do, but it didn't look like she had much choice. "Fine! But this still doesn't change anything!"

Danny sighed. When he saw Maddie was safely in the Fenton vehicle, he went back into the deeper depths of the Deathbringers' lair.

"Now all I gotta do is find dad," Danny said softly to himself as he started walking further in.


	12. Finishing the Job

Before I start, thank you very much to Dannyandsamlover and soccergurl for your two last reviews. Please keep the reviews coming, guys.

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Slowly starting to lose more and more breath from running around all the time, Danny ran back into the Deathbringers' lair and started looking for his dad. As soon as he could find Jack and lead him to safety, then it would be okay for Danny to leave as well.

Running through the entire place once again annoyed Danny more than ever. The lair had literally hundreds of rooms in it, and looking for his dad in it would not be an easy task.

As Danny was running through the lair, his ghost sense suddenly went off. He gasped and looked around for wherever the ghost was that was triggering it.

After only a few seconds, Danny heard an annoyingly loud voice yell, "HA! I SCARED YOU!!"

Danny sighed. He recognized the voice and he was getting very tired of it.

"Gipperalson, where are you?" Danny asked as he blatantly put his hands on his hips.

In a puff of black smoke in front of him, Gippy appeared. And Gippy looked very mad at Danny.

"I told you _not to call me that_!" Gippy shrieked. He was acting like a four year old throwing a temper tantrum. "My name is Gippy! Gippy! Gippy! Gippy! Gippy, Gippy, Gippy!"

Danny sighed in an exasperated way and rolled his eyes. "All right, what have you done with my dad?"

Gippy started smiling. "I'm not telling you," he said in a taunting tone.

"Gippy, be a good boy and tell the grown up where you put the fat weirdo in the orange jumpsuit," Danny said, trying to sound like a babysitter.

Gippy started smiling in a bratty way and looked at a door down at the corner of the hall. "He's _certainly_ not in THAT room," he said, still smiling.

Danny held back his laughter and instead shook his head, almost in disgust. "You are _such_ an idiot," he said to Gippy. After finishing his insult, Danny ran into the room Gippy said Jack _wasn't_ in.

Sure enough, upon opening the door, Danny saw that his dad was tied up and struggling to escape. When Jack finally noticed Danny was standing there, he began acting very hostile.

"Ah! Ghost!" Jack yelled. His efforts to escape multiplied. "I've got you now, you helpless ghost!"

"You've 'got me'? Maybe you didn't notice, but you're tied up right now and I'm not," Danny remarked.

Jack scowled and started trying to escape, but he was unsuccessful. Danny just watched him for a little while and laughed to himself before he had finally seen enough. "Okay, you know what's gonna happen? I'm going to untie you, I'm going to guide you to the front door of this place, and you're going to get out of here. And then you're going to give your son forty dollars so he can buy _Tales of the Abyss_."

Jack was about to say something, but before he could, a gross, loud burp was heard from behind. Danny turned around and Gippy was standing there, cracking up.

"You think you're pretty funny, don't you?" Danny asked. "You want attention, so you burp really loud? That's gross!"

Gippy just started laughing again the way a little kid laughs when he thinks he said something funny.

"All right kid, beat it. Go home and play Hungry Hungry Hippos or something," Danny said as he walked over to his dad to untie him.

When Danny was only a few steps away from his dad, he felt something hard hit him on the back of the head.

"Ow!" Danny yelled as he grabbed the sore spot on his head. Grinding his teeth, he turned around and saw Gippy, who was now holding a yo-yo in his hand. Danny assumed that Gippy had just hit him over the head with it.

"What was that for?!" Danny yelled. "How'd you even get into the Deathbringers in the first place?"

"I'm special!" Gippy yelled.

"Yeah?" Danny asked. "Well, I don't care how special you are. Go away before you get into trouble. Santa doesn't bring presents to bad little boys, you know."

"Like you?!" Gippy yelled.

"Okay, that's enough," Danny said, getting very annoyed. He held out his hand and fired a blast of energy at Gippy, but Gippy formed a teddy bear in his hands (the way Jerel formed sports equipment in his hands)

By putting the teddy bear out in front of him, Gippy was able to absorb the blast completely. "Ha ha!" he yelled. "I'm stronger than you!"

"Ugh…will you please just shut up?" Danny yelled.

Danny flew over to Gippy and tried to take the teddy bear from him, but the teddy bear suddenly turned very aggressive looking. It had developed a mind of its own.

The teddy bear jumped out of Gippy's arms and approached Danny. It was holding its arms out like it wanted something, but Danny was sure it had more hostile thoughts.

"Give me a hug!" the teddy bear said as it approached Danny. It spoke in a goofy voice that anyone would expect from a puppet on a little children's television show.

After making this bizarre statement, the teddy bear's arms retracted and were replaced with rocket launchers.

"What the…?" Danny said. "Didn't your mom tell you the T rated games were too much for you?"

The teddy bear fired one of the rockets, and Danny jumped out of the way of it just in time. The explosion brushed up against his back, making his jumpsuit pretty hot for a few seconds.

As Danny collapsed onto the floor after diving out of the way of the explosions, he looked up and saw Gippy's teddy bear was walking towards him, still looking like it wanted to brutally murder him.

Gippy was watching in excitement as his seemingly possessed teddy bear seemed to be inexplicably winning the fight.

Danny gradually got up, but just as he was getting back on his two feet, the bear took a swipe at him and knocked him against the wall.

Danny slammed into the wall and slowly fell into a heap on the floor. He automatically morphed out of his ghost form and was lying there completely defenseless. When he opened his eyes, he saw Gippy's teddy bear was still approaching him and was willing to take advantage of Danny not being in his ghost form now.

"Oh, no you don't!" Danny yelled when the bear was getting close to him. He held out his arm and grabbed the bear by the throat and clutched it as hard as he could. The bear seemed to be gradually losing it's strength as Danny suffocated it.

"Ha!" Danny yelled.

But the bear had a way to counter it. When he noticed how Danny was stretching his arm out, the bear reached its own arm out and started tickling Danny under his outstretched arm.

Suddenly, Danny's grip loosened and he started bursting with fits of laughter. "H…hey!" he tried to say as the bear continued tickling him. "C…cut it out!"

But the bear didn't stop, leaving Danny completely defenseless. Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Gippy walked over to Danny and formed a plastic toy laser gun in his hand (which Danny was certain was more than just a plastic toy) and started pulling the trigger and holding it. The gun then started charging as if it were a real gun.

"S…stop," Danny tried to choke out through his uncontrollable fits of laughter. "Let…me…GO!"

Using every ounce of strength he had, Danny created a giant blast of ectoplasmic energy coming from his entire body. Like a fierce wind, the blast knocked Gippy and his stuffed bear backwards.

Danny was now on his two feet again and morphed back into Danny Phantom.

"All right, playtime is over!" Danny yelled.

Danny flew over to Gippy's teddy bear and blasted its stomach with some energy. He then proceeded to ripping all the stuffing out of it, and the bear seemed to slowly lose life as Danny continued ripping its stuffing from it.

After only a few seconds, the entire inside of the bear was torn out and the bear itself lay as a lifeless bag on the floor now.

"You killed my friend!" Gippy raged, sounding like he was about to explode into a temper tantrum. "I'm really gonna make you pay now!"

Gippy lunged at Danny like a football player trying to make a tackle. But without even having to put much effort in, Danny charged up his fist and bashed it into Gippy's face as he came flying at him.

Gippy hit Danny's fist head on and plopped right onto the floor. He was quiet after that and didn't get up.

"Heh," Danny said. "Sleep tight, kid. Don't let the bedbugs bite."

Danny was able to temporarily rejoice over his victory, but then a sudden thought occurred to him.

"Oh, no…" Danny said. "During that fight I changed out of my ghost form. Then that means dad saw me…"

Danny turned around and looked very frantic. "Dad, I can explain! I…"

But to Danny's relief (and confusion) Jack was no longer there.

"Huh?" Danny asked. "Where'd you go?"

Danny slowly walked out of the room and saw Jack was hopping down the hallways trying to make his escape. Of course, he hadn't made a lot of progress, but at least he didn't see Danny in his human form.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Danny called down the hall to his father.

"Get back!" Jack yelled as he turned around and saw Danny standing there. "Stay back, ghost!"

Not heeding his father's words, Danny started walking closer anyways, causing Jack to start perspiring rapidly.

"Get back!" he yelled. "Back! Back! Baaaaaack!"

When Danny was right next to his dad, he simply grabbed the rope and untied it, setting his father free. Jack shook all the ropes off of him crazily and started running away.

"I know you're up to something!" Jack yelled as he ran out. "Next time, you're mine! Mine, I tell you! Mine!"

After making this empty threat that Danny had heard many times already, Danny just watched as his dad safely made it out of the Deathbringers' Lair and into the Fenton vehicle.

"Whew," Danny said. "Glad that's over. Taking on all of the surviving Deathbringers and rescuing my family in a day's work."

Danny started walking towards the exit himself until some blue smoke came out of his mouth.

"What?" Danny asked. "What's going on? How'd my ghost sense…"

Danny's sentence got cut off when he heard chuckling behind him. He slowly turned around and saw Arkov standing there with his arms folded and giving Danny a malicious look.

"So, Danny, you think you're so strong for defeating my henchmen?" he asked. "You realize you wouldn't last long at all against me, don't you?"

"Pfft, I'll bet you'd be the easiest out of them all," Danny said rather confidently with an obvious cocky tone in his voice.

"You think so?" Arkov said. He held out his hand and formed what looked like a giant scythe in it-symbolic for being the leader of the Deathbringers.

Danny was a bit surprised to see how deadly Arkov's weapon looked, but he still tried to look strong and hopefully intimidate Arkov by not backing down.

"Yeah," Danny said, trying to keep his cool. "Yes, I do."

Arkov started quietly laughing to himself, almost like he could read how Danny was truly scared of him from his facial expression. "Relax, kid. I'm not gonna fight you. I don't want to seem hostile. If I do, you may not want to join me."

"For the last time, what is it that you want me for anyway?!" Danny yelled, still not dropping his guard.

Arkov didn't say anything. "I'll give you a bit more time to decide," he said. "But if you decide you don't want to join us, there may be some serious consequences."

Arkov started bellowing with more laughter and disappeared in the puff of black smoke that the Deathbringers traditionally appeared and disappeared in.

Danny was standing there, a bit confused and worried about why Arkov _really_ didn't fight him then and there. Danny was really worried about Arkov. He honestly didn't think he could take on Arkov alone as long as Arkov had that giant scythe.

"Okay, easy does it, Fenton," Danny told himself. "Don't worry about it. Everything's over now. Your family's been rescued, you beat all the members of the Deathbringers who tried fighting you. Why don't you just go home now and try to put all this behind you?"


	13. Family Rescued

Thank you again soccurgurl for your review. But if it's not too much to ask, can I please get more of a review instead of just getting "Great chapter! Update very VERY soon please!" every time? Thank you again for reviewing.

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Trying his best to put the rough day he had just had behind him, Danny ran to the front of the Deathbringers' Lair and flew out of it.

In the course of a single day, Danny had gone to his friends' memorial service, spoken on their behalf, had his family kidnapped, went to a lair deep within a dark abyss, fought off three ghosts (it looked like it would have been four) and managed to set his family free.

Danny got home a few minutes later. He beat his family to the portal, which was good because it gave him time to act natural like nothing had happened. He dashed into his room and transformed out of his ghost half and was back to his normal teenaged self. Moments later, he heard something coming through the portal.

Acting like he had been in his room the whole time, Danny ran down into the basement and saw his family coming out of the portal. All of them looked very exhausted and worried after what they had just been through.

"Hey, guys," Danny said very casually. "What took ya? I've been home from the memorial service for a while."

"Danny!" Jack yelled. "You know that ghost that keeps popping up and causing trouble? He was just in that place with a bunch of ghosts the kidnapped us on our way out from the memorial service."

"What happened?" Danny asked, pretending to sound oblivious.

Jack and Maddie started explaining how they were in the Deathbringers' Lair (except they didn't know the ghosts were called Deathbringers) and how the notorious ghost around town was the one who rescued them.

"Imagine that," Danny said. "If he saved you, then maybe he's not a bad ghost after all."

"It's a trick, I'm telling you!" Jack yelled. "Danny, watch out for that ghost! He's just trying to make us _think_ he's good when he's really plotting to take over the world!"

Danny sighed. He knew reasoning with his father wasn't going to help, so he just left it there. Danny's parents walked out of the room, but Jazz stayed in there and looked at Danny sympathetically.

"Danny…" she started.

Danny smiled knowing he was finally going to get thanked for risking his life to save his family in the Deathbringers' Lair.

"What were you thinking?!" Jazz suddenly yelled, all sympathy in her voice dropping. Danny's face, too, dropped.

"What?" Danny yelled. "I just saved you guys! What are you getting mad at _me_ for?!"

"Danny, do you have any idea how much you could have been hurt?!" Jazz yelled. "I'm amazed you're not still in that place getting cooked for dinner."

Danny just sighed. Apparently, he wasn't going to get thanked for saving them after all.

Only a short while later, Danny was hopping on the bus to go back to school. He knew he was probably going to see some of the Deathbringers there after how he humiliated them all at their lair, desperate for revenge.

But to Danny's surprise, school went very normal. He went through the entire day without his ghost sense going off once. He was stunned, yet relieved by it.

Meanwhile, at Danny's house, things weren't going so easily or as uninterrupted. Down in the basement, a ghostly hand slipped its way through the walls. Then a ghostly head popped out. It was Gippy; he had found his way into the basement.

When Gippy was completely in the basement, he went tangible and started walking over to a pile of junk in the corner. Then, he noticed something very mysterious that seemed to be glowing from under the junk.

"Huh?" Gippy asked. "What's that?!"

Gippy started picking up all the metal and loudly threw it to the side. When he saw what was making the glowing sound, a dopey open-mouthed expression wrote itself onto his face.

"Can it…be?!!!" Gippy asked excitedly as he saw what was glowing.

"Hey! What's going on down there?!" yelled a voice down into the basement. It was Jack.

"Uh-oh," Gippy said.

Jack came thundering down the basement and saw Gippy standing there. Jack gasped.

"Ghost!" he yelled. Jack promptly pulled out a giant bazooka and aimed it at Gippy. "Freeze and I won't hurt you so badly!"

Gippy started wailing so loudly it caught Jack by surprise. He stumbled backwards and fell flat on his butt while Gippy was still screaming his head off.

And not wanting to be hurt at all, Gippy went intangible and ran out of the house through the same wall that he got in from. When Jack was stumbling back onto his feet, he was brimming with victory.

"Yes!" Jack yelled as he threw his arms up. "Score one for the big guy! Jack: 1. Ghost: Zero! Zilch! Nada! Nihil!"

Danny got home a little while later. As soon as he walked into the house, he was greeted by his dad getting right into his face while having the biggest smile on his face that Danny had seen in a long time.

"Uh…hi?" Danny said.

"Danny, guess what happened?!" Jack yelled. "I was just going down into the basement, and there was a ghost there, and I pulled out the gun, and the ghost got so scared of me it ran away! Ha! I am the mightiest ghost hunter in the world!"

Danny didn't know how to respond. "Er…that's great, dad."

Danny started edging his way away from his father and walking up the stairs. Jack continued rambling on about how he had successfully scaring off a ghost. Not wanting to listen to it at all, Danny went up to his room. But as soon as he put his hand on the doorknob, his ghost sense went off.

Danny let out a slight gasp, but didn't spend another second before morphing into his ghostly counterpart. He opened up the door and was surprised at what he saw.

Danny was now staring at the hooded figure that appeared when Sam and Tucker got killed.

"You!" Danny yelled.

"Ah…so we meet again," the cloaked figure said in his raspy and Dr. Claw-esque voice.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" Danny yelled. "Are you one of the Deathbringers? Because if you are, you can cut the act now. I know who all of you are."

The cloaked figure looked even colder. "Danny, stay out of the way of the Deathbringers. Your life is not worth the risk that they pose."

"I'm not even going to consider listening to you until you tell me who you are," Danny said coldly. "Now tell me who you are or get ready to fight."

Danny put up both of his fists and they both started glowing with green energy.

The cloaked figure just laughed slightly. "You really don't want to fight me, kid."

"What the?..." Danny said, not understanding what the cloaked figure was getting at. "I've beaten you before! You can't beat me!"

"Oh, really?" the cloaked figure said. "Do you want to see if I'm stronger than I was before?"

Danny looked like he was struggling between whether he should or shouldn't accept the cloaked figure's challenge. But since he didn't respond right away, the cloaked figure apparently took that as a "yes".

"No?" the figure asked. "Then quit trying to sound tough. If you know what's good for you, you'll just let me take care of this situation."

"Let _you_ take care of the situation?" Danny yelled. "I don't even know who you are. If you want me to trust you, take that hood off your head!"

The cloaked figure instead turned around and went towards the window. "Danny…don't die."

After making this statement, the cloaked figure jumped from the window and started flying away. Danny ran over to the window and looked out and saw the ghostly cloaked figure as he flew away.

"Man…who _is_ that?" Danny asked himself.

The rest of the day slowly wore on. A while later, Danny was sitting in his room and playing his Playstation and just trying to get a little bit of time to himself.

"Heh," Danny remarked as he played the game. "You call yourself a phantom? You're even easier to beat than Melanie."

"Danny!" Maddie yelled from downstairs.

Danny let out an exasperated sigh and replied. "Yeah, mom?"

Maddie was heard walking up the stairs and soon appeared in the doorway into Danny's room. "Danny, you remember what tonight is, don't you?"

"Refresh my memory," Danny bluntly remarked.

"Tonight's Jazz's award ceremony!" Maddie said excitedly. "Tonight is the night Jazz is going to get all those awards for all the hard work she has done! Isn't that exciting."

"More exciting than you could ever imagine," Danny said in not caring way. "Look, would it be okay if I didn't go tonight?"

"Actually, I was coming up here to ask you if you would mind staying home tonight. I just don't want you to be embarrassed by going there and not winning any awards," Maddie said, sounding like she really cared.

"Oh yeah," Danny said sarcastically. "I'd be very humiliated if I went to an upperclassmen's award ceremony and didn't win anything."

"Well, we think you'd be happier at home than going there," Maddie said, "so we're all letting you have the house to yourself tonight."

Danny's eyes widened with happiness and excitement. "You really mean it?"

"Yeah," Maddie said. "Would you want that?"

"Heck yes!" Danny said excitedly and full of energy. "That'd be awesome!"

"Great!" Maddie said. "We'll be leaving in a few minutes and you'll have the house to yourself until 10:00."

"Sounds great," Danny pleasantly said.

Smiling, Maddie walked out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Danny pumping his arms with excitement.

"Oh, yeah!" he yelled. "I'm going to have the house all to myself. No mom, no Jazz, no dad, no nothing. I'm going to be all allllllooooone."

Danny instantly resumed playing his Playstation. "And my first order of business alone shall be beating this punk."

While Danny was happy to be alone, he didn't notice his ghost sense going off. Right behind him, Gippy was intangible and poked his head through a wall. He had heard the whole conversation Danny had with his mom. He heard Danny was going to be all alone that night.

Then Gippy started laughing surprisingly evil to himself.


	14. All Alone

Before I start, I want to thank Linda very, VERY much for that last review she gave me. I don't normally get reviews that in depth, so thank you very much for it and please keep them coming! You have no idea how much motivation they give me and how good they make me feel! And soccergurl, even though I asked you NOT to write "Great chapter! Update very VERY soon please!" again, thank you for that review again.

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Hours later, Danny was still alone in his room playing his Playstation and finally getting a night to himself. He was happy to be hitting the buttons on his PS2 controller and enticing himself in the fictional world on screen without having to worry about his other troubles at all. That is, until he looked at the clock.

"Whoa," Danny said when he saw it was 9:00 now. "They'll be home in a little over an hour and I've still got a bunch of homework to do."

Danny turned his PS2 off and got up. He walked over to his backpack leaning against his bed and pulled out his books and papers, mumbling about how upset his parents would be if they came home and saw that he still hadn't done his homework.

Danny set his workbooks and papers down on the table and pulled a pencil out of his backpack. He started getting to work on his math problems, but didn't put a whole lot of energy into getting them right.

The time slowly ticked by as Danny had to do things like do long, complex problems (At least they seemed long and complex to him), analyzing parts of books he didn't understand and answering problems about what fifteenth century explorers did.

The quiet normally would have bothered him, but this time, it didn't. He continued plugging away at his work until there was a disturbance.

After a while, Danny's ghost sense suddenly went off. He dropped the pencil and slammed his books shut. He didn't waste any time before changing into his ghost counterpart and start looking around for whoever it was that triggered his sense.

Danny slowly walked downstairs, and waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs was Jerel.

"Rematch time!" Jerel yelled. "We're going into overtime to settle this one!"

Jerel held out his hand and formed a hockey stick with noticeably sharp blades at the end of the stick.

Danny tried to get the first hit by firing a blast of energy at Jerel, but Jerel was able to block it without any trouble with his hockey stick.

Scowling, Danny flew down the stairs so quickly he went right by Jerel without Jerel even realizing what happened. Danny then spun Jerel around and punched his face, knocking Jerel backwards and onto the floor.

Jerel stammered as he slowly got up, and he didn't take any time at all before getting back into the fight. Taking his hockey stick, he began swinging it at Danny's neck viciously. Danny knew his head would be severed in an instant if the blades on the end of the hockey blade hit him, so he ducked out of the way of the blades just in time.

When he was safe from the blades of the hockey stick, Danny got up again and started trying to make a break for it. But Jerel stuck out his hockey stick and tripped Danny as he was running with it, causing Danny to fall to the floor.

Danny flopped onto the cold ground, and when he looked up, he saw Jerel was taking the bladed end of the hockey stick and was getting ready to chop Danny up like he was cutting a piece of food in half.

Danny rolled out of the way just as the blades would have hit him. Instead, Jerel got his hockey stick stuck in the floor and he had to struggle to get it out.

This gave Danny the opportunity to attack. He was back up on his feet and started firing a series of punches right to Jerel's face, which was enough to knock Jerel back and away from his hockey stick in the ground.

Jerel was slowly coming to his senses when Danny was about to grab the hockey stick from the ground. Just as Danny pulled the hockey stick out of the ground and was going to use it to his own advantage, Jerel formed a Frisbee in his hand and threw it at Danny's head.

Danny saw the Frisbee coming and jumped out of the way, and it was a good thing, too, because when the Frisbee hit the wall, several spikes shot out of the side and implanted themselves into the wall. Danny was lucky; if the Frisbee hit him, those spikes would have been in his head.

With Danny away from the hockey stick now, Jerel ran up to it and grabbed it and pulled it out of the ground, then taking more swings at Danny with it.

Danny kept nudging himself out of the way of Jerel's weapon right before he would have been hit. Danny was lucky to be alive, but he didn't know how long his luck would hold out…

After a long time, Jerel saw that his hockey stick wasn't doing him much good, so he made it disappear in his hand and he replaced it with a giant machine that reminded Danny of his little league days: it was a pitching machine.

"Hey, kid," Jerel yelled, "Ya ready for a little batting practice?!"

Jerel started hitting a button and the pitching machine started pitching. The only problem was that instead of baseballs, the pitching machine was shooting out fireballs.

"Whoa!" Danny yelled when he saw the fireballs approaching him at a surprisingly fast pace. He dove out of the way and the fireballs hit the wall and fizzled out. Danny looked up at Jerel at the pitching machine.

"Somehow, I don't think that's what it means to throw some heat," Danny bluntly said. He stood up and jumped at Jerel and managed to avoid any fireballs Jerel was pitching at him.

Danny tackled Jerel to the floor, and in the process, knocked the pitching machine over, so any fireballs it pitched would instead harmlessly hit the floor.

Jerel and Danny tried fighting each other on the ground for a while like two professional wrestlers. It ended with Jerel getting the upper hand and being able to kick Danny off of him, effectively sending Danny flying across the living room and smashing into a wall.

As Danny plopped onto the floor, Jerel got up and started running into the kitchen. Danny slowly got up and started chasing after him.

In the kitchen, Jerel stared trying to find something he could use offensively, since Danny seemed to be able to survive any of his sports equipment that he was summoning to help him fight.

Danny ran into the kitchen and saw Jerel standing there as he looked for a weapon. Danny could tell what Jerel was trying to do.

"Oh no, you don't!" Danny yelled. He ran over to a knife block in the corner of the room and pulled out the largest carving knife in the block. He then took the knife and started running over to Jerel with it, trying to stab him.

Now surprised with Danny's sudden aggression, Jerel took a step back as Danny kept thrusting the knife at him.

In a short while, Danny got lucky and managed to stick the knife into Jerel's arm.

Jerel screamed in pain as the knife pierced his ghostly flesh, and he screamed even louder when Danny thrust it out.

Thinking fast, Danny saw the oven lying in the corner of the room. It wasn't normally his style, but Jerel was really annoying and he had to get rid of him. In Jerel's weakened state, Danny dragged him over to the oven and opened the door. Danny pushed and crammed Jerel into the oven and instantly slammed the door on him, and then he turned the heat up on the oven all the way.

"Your funeral will be held at 3:50 for thirty minutes," Danny said, still trying to make a pun after the fight.

Danny thought he had won, but right after his temporary victory over Jerel, his ghost sense went off again.

"Aw…now what?!" Danny groaned.

Danny ran out of the kitchen and saw Noreen was now standing in the living room.

"You must think you're pretty good after taking care of Jerel like that," Noreen remarked.

"Yeah, and don't think I'm going to show you any more mercy," Danny said.

Noreen started charging up two balls of ectoplasmic energy in her hand. "You won't have to," she said, "because _I'm _not showing you any."

Noreen launched the two balls of ectoplasmic energy at Danny and hit him straight on. Danny fell backwards on the floor.

Like she weighed nothing, Noreen floated over to Danny and grabbed him by the front of his black jumpsuit.

"It's over for ya, kid," Noreen hissed. "Give it up."

"Um…how about no?"

Danny pushed his leg up and kicked Noreen in the stomach, knocking her back. When Danny got free of her grasp, he put both of his fists up as if he were sparring.

Growling, Noreen put both of her hands out and started forming a ball of energy in them and got ready to fire it at Danny.

Danny fired his own ball of energy at the same time and the two of them collided, creating a mini explosion that knocked both of them back. Danny slowly got up, but when he was back on two feet, he saw that Noreen beat him to it.

When Danny realized Noreen was already up, she jumped over to him and picked him up by the throat and threw him against a wall. Danny hit the wall face-first and fell backwards onto the floor. He opened his eyes and saw Noreen was hovering right over him and about to fire a blast of energy right into his face.

Danny took Noreen by surprise by grabbing her ankle and pulling her onto the floor. She fell like a bag of rocks and landed hard on her back.

When Noreen was down, Danny ran towards a closet to look for something that he could use offensively against her. His search came to a halt when he saw a solid wooden baseball bat leaning against the side wall.

Grabbing the bat, Danny ran back to Noreen, who was just starting to get up. She slowly came to her senses and saw Danny standing right next to her with a baseball bat. Her face dropped and she saw how much trouble she was in.

"Batter up," Danny said.

Danny swung the baseball bat with all his strength and hit Noreen over the side of her head with it. She screamed in pain and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Danny was breathing heavily. He looked at the bat in his hand and at the unconscious Noreen at his feet. He took a huge sigh of relief.

"Whew," Danny finally said. "Is it actually over now?"


	15. Half Destroyed

Before I start, I want to thank Leppers for that review. Man, have I missed ya, Leppers. Anyway, thanks for the review. Please keep them, you know how much motivation they give me. Oh, any by the way Leppers, you said you knew I wouldn't do a certain thing to Danny in a story, and well...you might want to consider taking back that statement after this chapter :)

By the way, just in case I need to say it, I do not own any of the Disney characters referenced in this chapter

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Danny thought it was over. Noreen wasn't moving and Jerel was in an oven that was running at the highest it could possibly go. But some part in Danny tried to tell him that maybe it _wasn't_ over.

And sure enough, only a short while after striking the finishing blow over Noreen's head, Danny opened his mouth and his ghost sense once again went off.

"Oh, great," he said. "Who's here now?"

Danny started looking around for the ghost that triggered his sense, although he was already pretty sure that it was one of the other Deathbringers.

And Danny's prediction was correct. He started to run into the basement, and Gippy was standing there and blocking the stairs down.

"Uh uh uhhhhhhh," Gippy said with a wide, rude smile on his face. "You can't go down there!"

"Watch me," Danny said. "Move out of the way or you'll regret it."

"No!" Gippy said in a very aggressive, yet childish voice.

Danny sighed with exasperation flowing within. "What are you guys even doing here in the first place? I thought I was finally going to get a night to myself and then you guys show up."

"Yeah, I know!" Gippy said, starting to laugh.

"Wait, what do you mean, 'you know'?"

"I heard you and your mommy talking about it earlier tonight. I heard her say that they'd be at your sister's award thingy and that you would be on your own tonight. I told Arkov that you would be alone tonight and he said it would be a good time to strike."

Danny started growling. "So it's because of _you_ that you guys are coming here and ruining my night off?"

"Yup!" Gippy said, still smiling wide.

"Why did you even come here anyway? I already beat your sorry butts in your house or whatever a little while ago. I thought you'd be smart enough to know to leave me alone after that," Danny coldly answered.

"I can't tell you," Gippy said in a very taunting voice. (similar to the way a little kid says "You can't get me" when they're trying to run away with something)

"Fine, I didn't want to have to do this," Danny said, "but if you won't tell me, then you're gonna meet the same fate as your two friends just did."

"Oh, no I won't!" Gippy yelled.

Similar to the way Jerel could summon items to help him fight, Gippy held out his two hands. He formed a giant rattle in one of them and in the other he had what looked like a giant water pistol that Danny was sure fired something other than water.

"Come on, you big meanie!" Gippy yelled. "Do your worst!"

Danny got in fighting position and Gippy got his weapons ready to attack. He took his giant rattle and began swinging it at Danny.

By now, Danny had to dodge a lot of things being swung at him, so his reflexes had grown considerably sharper. He was able to duck without too much trouble.

After ducking several times over and over, Gippy began to get frustrated and he decided to just throw the rattle instead.

Surprisingly, this worked out for Gippy. The rattle hit Danny right in the head and knocked him to the ground, but was just short of knocking him out.

Danny fell on the ground, barely conscious after being hit with the huge rattle, but he heard Gippy screaming, "YEAH!!!! YEAH!!!!!" and jumping up and down as if he had just won the lottery.

Danny slowly tried to get up, but Gippy saw this and screamed, "Oh, no you don't!"

Gippy took his plastic water pistol and started firing it at Danny. To Danny's surprise, it seemed to almost be a real gun. The pistol made a loud and explosive sound as Gippy pulled the trigger, and Danny could see pieces of the floor getting chipped by whatever it was that Gippy was firing.

Danny started trying to scoot backwards as fast as he possibly could while Gippy continued firing the "water pistol" at him without stop.

At long last, it seemed Gippy ran out of ammunition in the gun and he threw it to the side. The gun hit the floor and disappeared in a puff of ghostly smoke.

Danny was finally able to get back on his two feet now and he started to run towards Gippy. He fired a blast right in Gippy's face, causing him to fall backwards while screaming, "Ow!" at the top of his lungs, which was loud enough to give Danny a temporary shock.

Danny ran over to Gippy as he fell on the floor, but Gippy was far from throwing in the towel yet. Right when Danny was about to fire another blast at him, Gippy held out his hand and formed a remote controlled car in it. In the other hand he formed the controller that he would use to operate the car.

Gippy instantly started controlling the car, and it sped towards Danny surprisingly fast. Danny jumped out of the way just as it was going to hit his ankle. Normally, he wouldn't be afraid of a toy car, but he knew this wasn't a regular old toy car.

And soon enough, behind the car's headlights, two small gun barrels poked out.

"Sheesh, for a guy with the mind of a little kid, you sure love guns, don't you?" Danny asked in amazement as he saw what the car was trying to do.

"Uh huh!" Gippy said with a lot of pride.

Gippy once again started controlling the remote controlled car and started firing bullets from the guns behind the headlights.

Apparently, the guns were machine guns and Danny had to stay on his toes if he wanted to dodge all of them without one getting planted into his heel.

After a long time, Danny finally jumped into the air and hovered right over the car. When he started to fall, he turned himself around and aimed his hands at the "toy" car. He fired a blast of ectoplasmic energy from his hand and hit the tiny vehicle dead-on, destroying it on impact.

The car turned to a pile of rubbish and started disappearing in the same cloud of ghostly smoke that the pistol disappeared in.

"You meanie!" Gippy yelled. "My mommy's going to get really mad now for breaking that!"

Danny didn't waste his time replying to Gippy's immature threat and instead just fired a blast at Gippy and hit him right in the face.

Gippy screamed loud enough that Danny thought his eardrums were going to burst. He got up in a little bit and gave Danny a very menacing and cold glare.

"That's it, you big meanie!" he yelled. "I think I need to show you who's boss here!"

Gippy held out his hand and formed a large handful of marbles in them. He got ready to throw them, and in just a few seconds, several marbles were hurtling at Danny. But there were so many of them coming from all directions that they were unavoidable.

"Oh, no…" Danny thought to himself. _"There's no way I can dodge ALL of them! I hope Gippy didn't make those marbles explosive…"_

In no time, the marbles came into contact with Danny. Danny felt a brief bit of pain as the marbles collided with him, but then nothing. Danny slowly looked up and saw Gippy standing there excitedly as if he was expecting something.

"Wait, were those just ordinary marbles?" Danny asked.

"Yeah! You're sorry now, aren't you!" Gippy yelled, still looking like he was expecting something.

Danny answered Gippy's question by firing another blast of ectoplasmic energy into his face. Gippy fell backwards and Danny walked right over to him. "Not at all."

Gippy started screaming like a spoiled brat and was up again in no time. He held out his hand once again and formed several small looking action figures in it.

"Uh, don't you think you're a little young for Disney?" Danny asked when he saw what the action figures were shaped like. All the action figures were shaped like villains from animated Disney movies.

"Some of them scare me!" Gippy answered, and Danny wasn't exactly clear why he said that.

Danny looked down and saw action figures resembling the evil queen, Scar, Jafar and Gaston.

"Kill him!" yelled Gippy as pointed to Danny.

Almost like they were servants, the action figures began approaching Danny.

The evil queen and Jafar simultaneously started firing red blasts of energy at Danny wile Scar lunged at his ankle to pull him to the ground and Gaston pulled out a knife and began charging.

"Whoa, I don't remember this from the movies," Danny said. "Then again, I haven't exactly seen any of these movies since I was seven, but I do remember one thing: the bad guys always die."

Danny put up a barrier and blocked the rays of magic coming from the evil queen and Jafar. But Scar was in mid air and lunging towards Danny when Danny put up the barrier, causing him to get stuck in the barrier along with him.

When Danny realized the possessed Scar action figure was in the barrier with him, Danny grabbed the lion-shaped toy and snapped it in half with no trouble.

"I know it's not the same as getting eaten by your friends, but that's what you get for messing with me," Danny remarked, looking at the action figure as it slowly started disintegrating in front of him.

Danny dropped the barrier and instantly fired two blasts of energy, one at Jafar and one at the evil queen. Both of the toys got blown to pieces when this happened.

Danny put his hands on his hips and gave Gippy a cocky sneer until he felt a sharp pain in his foot.

"Ow!" Danny yelled. He looked down and saw the Gaston action figure taking a knife and thrusting it through Danny's foot.

Growling, Danny picked up the action figure and raised it above his head and then slammed it into the ground as hard as he could. The toy stopped moving and slowly started disappearing as well.

Danny had defeated all four action figures now and he looked at Gippy with a "What's next?" look.

Gippy now began to look very worried. In fact, he was scared to the extent now that he started to run away.

"I don't think so," Danny said.

Danny fired a blast of energy at the back of Gippy's head and knocked him onto the ground. When Gippy was on the ground, Danny picked up Gippy by the hair on the back of his head and started slamming him into the floor. Gippy was crying in pain as Danny continued his relentless assault, and finally, Danny picked Gippy up and threw him into the air.

When Gippy started falling, Danny held out his hands and fired the strongest blast he could muster right into Gippy's midsection.

The blast went right through Gippy's guy and came out the other end. Gippy lifelessly began falling to the ground.

When he hit the ground, the same bright lights and dark smoke started coming from Gippy that came from Claude when Danny defeated him.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gippy yelled. His scream sounded worse than any noise Danny had heard before.

Danny just kept watching and covered his ears as Gippy began disappearing in front of him.

"MOOOooooooommmmmmyyyyyy…" Gippy said as he continued disappearing. In just a matter of seconds, he was gone. Gone for good.

"Whew," Danny said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Danny listened to the quiet and was happy that all the commotion had finally died down. He was just about to go back into his room and try to put the whole night behind him, but once again, he couldn't do that. Danny saw more blue smoke coming from his mouth. He started growling. He knew who the ghost was now.

"Arkov…" Danny hissed.

Danny ran down into the basement, thinking it made sense for Arkov to be down there. And sure enough, Danny ran down into the basement and Arkov was standing there, looking like he was expecting Danny.

"Well, I see my Deathbringers were no match for you," Arkov said in a surprisingly calm voice.

"Drop it, Arkov," Danny said, trying not to be intimidated by Arkov's frightening appearance. "I just got through Gippy, Noreen and Jerel. You don't want me to fight _you_ now, do you?"

"You're right, I don't want to fight you," Arkov said calmly.

Danny was a bit surprised by this.

"Instead, I want you to join me."

"What?"

"I want you to join the Deathbringers, Danny," Arkov explained. "This is your last chance to accept. Now join the Deathbringers or die."

Danny didn't take Arkov too seriously. "Uh, how about option C: finish the last one?"

Arkov seemed really disappointed. "I was hoping I could have at least _one_ smart member in the Deathbringers besides myself," Arkov said in a voice that sounded like he thought derserved sympathy. "But now I see it cannot be that way."

Arkov held out his hand and formed his giant scythe in it. He gave Danny a cold glare, which only intimidated Danny more. "Prepare to die!"

Arkov began running towards Danny with his giant scythe and was moving so fast Danny could hardly see him coming. He managed to jump out of the way just in time, but just as he was landing on his feet, Arkov was charging at him again.

_Man, _Danny thought to himself. _This guy's fast!_

Arkov began spinning his scythe around in a clockwise motion and continued approaching Danny as he spun it.

Trying to take advantage of not begin attacked, Danny fired a blast of energy at Arkov. But using his scythe, Arkov blocked the blast and deflected it back at Danny.

"Whoa!" Danny yelled. He jumped out of the way just as his own blast was going to hit him.

As Danny landed back on his feet, he looked up and saw Arkov flying at him too fast to react. In one swift motion, Arkov pushed the scythe to the side as if he were about to swing it.

And he swung it indeed. The scythe came so fast that Danny couldn't even see it coming and react to it.

The scythe pierced right into Danny's stomach. Danny let out a loud scream of pain as the deadly weapon came into contact with him.

Instantly Danny went out of his ghost form and back into his human form. He continued screaming in his human form, but after a while he slowly quieted down.

After he stopped screaming, Danny's eyes opened wide and stared at Arkov with sadness and disbelief. Then, he fell onto his knees and clutched the spot on his stomach where Arkov's scythe had hit him.

Not taking his hand off of his wound, Danny collapsed completely on the floor. He stopped breathing; he stopped moving; the grip he had on his wound suddenly weakened.

He was dead.

Arkov began laughing to himself as he used his foot to flip Danny's corpse over so he could look at Danny's dead face. Danny's eyes were gently closed shut and there were no signs of life coming from him at all. Arkov stared at Danny's dead body and continued to laugh to himself. Then, while he was laughing, two figures came walking down the stairs: Jerel and Noreen.

"The boy refused to side with us?" Noreen asked.

"Yes," Arkov said as he turned his attention back to Danny's body. "He paid the ultimate price for refusing."

Jerel didn't say anything, but he was smiling to himself.

"Come, Deathbringers," Arkov said contently. "Our work here is done. Let's head back to base."

"Yes, sir," Jerel and Noreen said simultaneously. They both turned and started walking back up the stairs.

Arkov waited a little while before following them. Just as he put his foot on the first stair, he turned around and looked at Danny's dead body one more time. He started quietly laughing to himself and made his way up the stairs after his two subordinates.


	16. Over?

"Danny!" shrieked Maddie with pain and horror as she leaned over the body of her dead son.

"Come on, little brother," Jazz said, tears rolling down her face. "Please, wake up!"

"Come on, son! Show us a sign!" Jack pleaded.

Danny's family members were all crowding around his body. It lay in a crumpled up heap on the floor, and it was starting to turn a little cold. Danny's body was completely lifeless; there was no breathing, no pulse, no twitches, no anything.

"Dannny…" Maddie quietly whispered as she put the back side of her hand on his face as if that would wake him up. "Jack, call the police."

"Got it."

Jack thundered up the stairs from the basement and got on the telephone faster than Jazz or Maddie thought was possible for him. The two girls continued to watch Danny, hoping that he would wake up.

Danny's body continued to lie there, dead.

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"_Uh…ahhhhh…what happened?"_

A small, teenaged sounding voice filled the area.

"_Wha?...What's going on?..."_

The same voice once again filled the room. Danny's eyes opened up, but everything was way too blurred for him to see anything. All he knew was that a figure was hovering over him.

As his vision began clearing, Danny could see that the figure hovering over him was a woman. She seemed very relieved and happy to see Danny was finally opening his eyes.

"Oh, you're finally awake," the woman said. It was a soft, but cold at the same time voice.

Danny blinked very quickly several times. The more he blinked, the more focused his vision became. He could soon see everything in front of him again, and he was in for a nasty surprise.

"Wait! Where am I?" Danny yelled.

Danny looked around and saw he was in an old shack. The place was falling apart, and the only one in there with him was…a ghost! But it wasn't a harmful or violent ghost; it was Mist.

"I thought maybe I'd have to wake you up manually," Mist said looking at Danny, a small smile starting to spread across her face.

Danny slowly got up off the floor and clutched his head. He wasn't in any pain, but it felt like he hadn't moved for weeks. When he was finally back on his two feet and didn't look like he was going to lose his balance any longer, he turned his attention back towards Mist.

"What happened?" Danny finally asked.

Mist looked like a lot of stuff was going on inside her head. She didn't look like she knew what to say. "Well…I guess…"

"What, you don't know?" Danny asked in an understanding tone. "That's fine if you don't know what happened. It's just I don't remember being here and…"

"Danny, why don't you start there?" Mist suggested.

Confusion showed itself all over Danny's face. "What? Start _where_? What are you talking about?"

"Tell me everything you remember up to now. Tell me the last thing you remember happening," Mist said in a gentle way.

Danny didn't really see where Mist was going with this.

"Uh…okay," he said a little uneasily. "I was in my room, doing homework. Then my ghost sense went off. I checked to see who was there, and as it turned out, it was the Deathbringers. Jerel, Noreen, Gippy and Arkov were here. I fought 'em all off and kill them, except for Arkov."

Mist looked like she was starting to get more interested. "Keep going."

"Okaaaayyy," Danny said. "I beat all of them except for Arkov. I saw Arkov in my basement and I tried to fight him. I remember he had a weapon that looked like a scythe or something. And I remember he tried to hit me with it, and then I remembered a lot of pain, and then when I woke up, I was here."

"Ahhhhhhh," Mist sadly said. "That would explain a lot."

"What explains a lot?" Danny asked, growing impatient. "What's going on here?!"

"Danny, calm down," Mist said. "I've got something very urgent I need to tell you…"

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Police cars and ambulances were swarming in front of the Fenton's home. Jazz, Maddie and Jack were watching as the officers and detectives carefully examined the scene and were taking pictures while the paramedics were loading Danny's body into an ambulance.

"I don't know what to say other than that I'm very sorry," one of the paramedics said to Danny's parents. "Your son is indeed dead."

Jazz didn't try to hold back her tears any more. She clutched onto Maddie's arm, and Maddie tried comforting her by gently patting her on the shoulder.

"Well, what happened?!" Jack yelled, sounding surprisingly aggressive. "How'd my son die?!"

"Mr. Fenton, we are still looking into it," the paramedic said. "We're going to do an autopsy later tonight. Your son will be ready to have a burial in a couple of days."

"Couple of days?" Maddie said, almost sounding excited and happy if the situation wasn't so dreary and tragic. She ran up the basement stairs to use the telephone to make another call.

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"What do you mean 'I'm dead'?!" Danny raged right into Mist's face.

Mist looked like it was really paining her to tell Danny what happened. She took a deep breath and started explaining.

"Okay, I don't know how to say this," Mist said in a low voice. "But when you were fighting Arkov, he _killed you_."

"Yeah, right," Danny said. "If I'm dead that how can I still be here?"

"Look at yourself," Mist said.

"What? This?" Danny said. He looked down at himself and saw he was wearing his black jumpsuit. "This is just what I was wearing when I was fighting Arkov, that's all."

"Try changing out of it."

"What?" Danny asked. "Uh…sure."

Danny tried morphing into his regular teenaged self, but nothing happened.

"What the…" Danny stammered. "Why isn't it working?"

Mist sighed again. "Danny, you're dead. Kind of."

Danny looked as confused as ever now. "How can I be 'kind of' dead?"

"You're only a ghost now. When a person with a strong will is killed or whenever they had their hopes set on doing something that they were going to do no matter what the cost, their ghost usually stays until it can rest in peace."

"We've already had this conversation," Danny said, "and I don't have a will to do anything except survive the school year. How could I possibly just be a ghost?"

"You are an exception," Mist said, starting to sound very technical. "You have two halves: a ghost half and a human half."

"So you're saying…"

"Yes," Mist said. "Arkov killed your human half, but only that half. Your ghost half still remains."

"Sweet!" Danny said as he pounded his fist into his hand. "Arkov will never be expecting an attack from me now! I can go right back to his lair and get some serious revenge on him for killing my human half!"

"It won't be that easy," Mist said sadly.

"What? Why not? He's the only Deathbringer still alive."

"No he's not," Mist admitted. "It looks like Gippy was the only one you killed. I saw Arkov leaving your home earlier tonight and Jerel and Noreen walked out with him. They're still alive and his plan can carry through."

Danny groaned. "I'm getting sick and tired of fighting those guys. Are you saying that if I want to repay my debt to Arkov I'm going to have to go through those two again?"

"Never mind revenge," Mist said, suddenly sounding very furious and aggressive. "Arkov still has his Deathbringers to do his bidding and go through with his plan."

"By the way, you never told me about that," Danny said. "What exactly was Arkov's plan anyway?"

"Oh, right," Mist said. "I forgot to tell you about it, didn't I? Well, using his Deathbringers, Arkov split them into two teams: one with Noreen and Claude working on a machine, and the other was made up of Gippy and Jerel. They worked on making a portal to the Plains of the Helpless Souls."

"I think you've already told me about this, except for the Plains of the Helpless Souls part. I mean, you've mentioned it before, but I'm not quite sure I completely understand it yet," Danny said.

"Oh, yes," Mist said. "The Plains of the Helpless Souls is where ghosts go when they die."

Danny's eyes widened in fear and surprise. "When they die, huh? Thought so. Keep going."

"Just like there's a place for people to go when they die…" Mist started, "There's a place for ghosts to go when they die, but it's not nearly as joyous."

"Okay, you've completely lost me," Danny said.

"The Plains of the Helpless Souls is where the ectoplasma that makes up a ghost's body goes once the ghost that it belonged to is defeated. Right now, there are ectoplasmic molds of Gippy and Claude floating around on there."

"Yikes," Danny said.

"Yes," Mist said. "They float there like zombies for the rest of eternity."

Danny was in complete shock. "That's kind of disturbing."

"It's kind of _very_ disturbing!" Mist corrected. "So if you lose a fight now, that's where you'll end up for all of eternity. I don't think you want that to happen now, do you?"

"No way," Danny said. "But can you _please _tell me what it is that they're planning now?"

"Yes," Mist said again. "As I was saying, Noreen and Claude were working on the machine that was going to be used in Arkov's plan for power. The machine would be able to take the ectoplasma from the empty molds in the Plains of the Helpless Souls and turn it into raw power for whoever was hooked up to the machine to use."

Danny's eyes widened and his teeth started to vibrate up and down quickly. "But I thought you said they had practically completed that machine!"

"And that was the truth," Mist said sadly.

"So they could be using that machine in the Plains of the Helpless Souls to extract the ectoplasmic energy from dead ghosts any day now!" Danny yelled. "I know_ I_ don't want to see Arkov if he gets that powerful! I gotta stop him! How do I get to the Plains of the Helpless Souls?"

"That's what Jerel and Gippy were for," Mist said. "It was their job to find the way to get to it. It's a very heavily guarded place and finding the portal to it is said by many to have been nearly impossible."

Danny felt like he could breathe a little more. "Well, as long as they don't have both projects finished, I should be all right," Danny said.

"But that's not a lot of time," Mist said. "I've already told you that the machine Noreen and Claude were working on is very close to completion. And even worse, I've heard that Gippy and Jerel were very close to finishing constructing the portal that would take them to the Plains of the Helpless Souls."

Now Danny had even less time than he realized. He thought it would be bad enough for a ghost to spend an entire afterlife floating in some far off place as an empty, lifeless pile of ectoplasma for all eternity, but the fact that Arkov was going to use that ectoplasma to make himself incredibly powerful was even more frightening.

And now Danny had even less time than he realized. Now that he knew both parts to Arkov's plan (Making the machine used to harness the ectoplasma from dead ghosts on the Plains of the Helpless Souls and finding the portal to the Plains itself) were just near completion, Danny knew he would have to scramble.

But the real pressure for Danny wasn't that if he failed that Arkov would become super powerful, but if he failed, Danny would have to spend the rest of eternity floating as a lifeless mold of ectoplasma with no feelings and absolutely nothing at all. That was certainly something he didn't want.

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"Jack!" Maddie called down to her husband in the basement. "I just got off the phone with Sam and Tucker's parents!"

"What?" Jack asked. "What were you talking to them for?"

"They said that they arranged for Sam and Tucker's burials to be on the same day. I asked them if they would mind letting Danny have his burial during the same service as theirs."

"You mean, three kids sharing the same burial?" Jack asked, making sure he understood everything.

"Yeah," Maddie said. "You know how close the three of them were. Don't you think if they were all alive that's the way they'd want it?"

Jack thought about it. "Yeah, I suppose your right. But what did their parents actually say?"

Maddie smiled. "Sam and Tucker's parents said it would be fine if they shared the same burial."


	17. The Mosaic

Danny left Mist's lair and was just starting to analyze the challenges that he now knew lay before him. Knowing Arkov was still alive was upsetting enough, but he wasn't too thrilled about knowing Jerel and Noreen had survived, either. With three Deathbringers still in the picture, Danny knew he would have to put a halt to their plans.

"Okay," Danny said aloud when he was outside and out of earshot. He must have really been tormented by what was going on if he was talking to himself. "So, I've gotta stop them from finishing this machine thing that's going to use the ectoplasma making up dead ghosts and use that to power themselves up."

Danny started pacing back and forth as he weighed the positives and negatives of each possible decision.

"Not only that, but in order to get to the Plains of the Helpless Souls, which is where they're going to use that machine, they need to finish working on a portal," Danny continued saying to himself as he thought about what actions needed to be taken.

"Both of those projects are pretty close to being finished," Danny said. "So it'll probably be too late to stop them. I don't think I'll be able to ruin it now after how far they've gotten in producing them…"

Danny continued pacing back and forth and tried to come up with the best solution.

"It looks like I'm going to have to stop them from making the portal and the machine all together, but to do that, I'd have to…"

Danny thought about what he had for an idea of halting both projects. He had an idea, but he didn't like it one bit.

"No, I can't go around and kill them now," Danny said. "I don't them to just end up wandering those stupid plains for the rest of…forever! There's got to be some other way."

But then another thought occurred to Danny.

"Wait a minute," he suddenly thought. "These are the guys who killed Sam and Tucker. They deserve whatever they get!"

Although Danny tried to justify his own actions in killing the remaining Deathbringers (He didn't really see the harm now that he knew it was completely possible and it would even help him get his revenge)

"Okay, I see what I have to do," Danny thought to himself. "I need to get to that lair and put an end to both projects either way. There's gotta be some other way than just going in there and killing all of them."

Danny surprised himself with what he was saying. He thought he was showing the Deathbringers incredible mercy by sparing them. He thought he was giving them a huge break letting them keep their (somewhat living) lives instead of taking them.

"All right. I guess it's off to the Deathbringers' Lair," Danny said in an almost nervous tone.

Danny was about to run into his house and go through the portal in the basement, but then he remembered something.

"Oh, yeah…" Danny sadly said to himself. "Mom and dad and Jazz think I'm dead. Actually, I kind of _am_ dead, but…I'd better not tell them who I am. It'll probably only cause them more confusion and more agony. Maybe I'll tell them later."

Danny officially decided that he would tell his parents at some point that he was really the ghost of their son, but that time was not now. Taking a gulp, he went into his house and tried not to set off any ghost alarms that his parents had installed.

Just by walking in the house, Danny could tell that everything was much drearier and much more unhappy overall. He could see Jack and Maddie looking at pictures of him in their living room, and he resisted the urge to say something to them, just to let them know it was okay. But it would only cause more anxiety for everyone.

Slowly, Danny walked down into the basement. He opened up the portal and saw the green swirling cloud in front of him. He knew that once he headed to the Deathbringers' Lair, he was going to finally end his streak of revenge. Yes, his family was destroyed, as were Sam and Tucker's. In fact, his two friends were now dead.

It had been a very painful few days for Danny, but when he would finally go into the Deathbringers' Lair, it would finally be over, for better or for worse.

Danny took a deep breath and jumped through the portal. In no time he was back in the Ghost Zone. He flew over to the Deathbringers' Lair and only thought about how much he was ready to end painful struggle the Deathbringers were putting him through.

In no time, the giant building was right in front of his eyes. Danny flew in very quickly and started running around the large, seemingly never-ending halls. He was looking more for the portal or the machine than he was looking for the actual members themselves. The last thing he wanted was to fight some of the Deathbringers again.

"Hmmmm…" Danny said to himself as he looked around. "I guess they certainly know how to hide their important stuff well."

It was true. Danny was wandering around for a very long time without finding either the surviving Deathbringers, the portal, or the machine.

Danny was suddenly spooked when he thought he heard someone coming. He looked at the floor, and behind the corner of a wall he saw a shadow approaching, meaning one of the Deathbringers was coming.

"Uh-oh," Danny said.

Trying to find a place to hide, Danny saw a huge set of doors that he had never been through before. Not taking any risks, he ran through those doors and was instantly greeted by a long, empty corridor, and it surprisingly had no doors or side rooms.

"What the…" Danny thought to himself when he saw the long corridor. He started walking down it very quickly and saw that at the very end of the corridor was another door.

The words on the door took Danny's breath away. The door read: ARKOV'S LAIR-NO ADMITTANCE!

"Finally," Danny said. "I've finally found Arkov. Time to finish him up for good!"

Danny kicked the door open and screamed, "It's over, Arkov!"

But Arkov was not in there. It looked like a giant throne room with a lot of empty space except for a small throne-like place at the other end of the room. And sitting right above the throne-part of the room was something that Danny would have never expected.

"Whoa…" he said. "What _is_ that?"

Sitting right above the throne were giant pictures of ghosts looking particularly nasty and seemingly staring back. The ghosts staring out at him were none other than the Deathbringers.

From left to right was Claude, Gippy, Noreen, Jerel and Arkov. The pictures of the Deathbringers gave Danny the chills, but there was something about it that made him even more nervous.

Arkov's, Noreen's and Jerel's portraits were in full color on the wall, but the portraits of Gippy and Claude seemed to be covered in some sort of crimson, transparent sheet, because both pictures were bright red, except for the black lines to outline to the Deathbringer in the picture and any details about them.

Danny assumed that the completely red coloring over the pictures of the Deathbringers symbolized which ones were gone. Claude and Gippy were gone, and their pictures were completely red, but the other three were in full color, so Danny thought that had to have been correct.

"What are you doing here?!" burst a voice from behind.

Danny jumped and turned around. Arkov was standing in the room right behind him, apparently just getting in.

"Arkov…" Danny slowly muttered.

"Danny?" Arkov asked, very confused but still retaining the sick grin. "What are you doing alive? I thought I killed you only a few hours ago."

"I'd rather not explain it," Danny said very plainly.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to kill you _again_," Arkov said.

"Bring it," Danny said. He put up his fists and got ready to fight. "I came here to end this, after all."

Arkov held out his hand and formed his giant scythe in that. Seeing the giant scythe again automatically sent off a red flag in Danny's mind.

"_What, what am I doing?!" _Danny thought to himself when he saw the weapon that had killed his human part. _"I'm lucky enough to be alive as it is! I can't go throwing that away now in a fight with this guy!"_

Danny caught Arkov by surprise and made a surprise run past him and out of the throne room. Danny ran back down the long corridor and back into the main hall of the Deathbringers' Lair. His only problem was that he now forgot the way he came in. Trying to make as best time he could, he didn't try to recount his steps out of fear Arkov was right behind him, so he just started running and didn't think about where he was going.

Danny ran down and past all corners and through any doors that he didn't think were dead ends. It had been a while since he had run this hard, but his life was on the line this time, which gave him some more energy in a way.

Danny thought he was safe, but his heavy breathing instantly stopped when he turned around and saw a giant mosaic right behind him

The mosaic was framed around a large stone portal and it depicted nothing but a lime green void. But there was something very menacing about it. Then, in the bottom left corner, he noticed some sort of writing.

Danny squinted and tried to read the words written in the corner. "_To who can piece this mosaic together, may it lead you to the afterlife of the ghosts…_"

Danny thought it was kind of cryptic, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was staring at the portal to the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

"Whoa," Danny said as he stared in awe at the enticing, yet plain mosaic. "It looks like these guys finished it…"

Danny tried putting his hand on the glass, but nothing happened. His hand hit it just the same as any other solid.

"Hmmm…guess it's not working," Danny thought.

Then Danny soon found out why the portal wasn't working. He saw in a very small part to the right side that a single piece of glass was missing from the mosaic. Just a single piece of the entire thing was missing.

"Oh, great," Danny said. "They've only got one piece left to find?! Man, that sure doesn't give me a lot of hope."

Danny was about to leave until a thought came to him. "Wait a minute, why can't I just break this thing now?"

Danny fired a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the portal, but the ray bounced off the mosaic and went right back at him. It him in the stomach and knocked him against the opposite wall and onto the ground.

"Ow…" Danny thought to himself. He slowly got up and looked at the mosaic in a heated way. "All right…I guess I can't do that."

Danny then noticed how the mosaic was only around a set of stones resembling a doorway, so it wasn't embedded in a wall or something like that.

"Hmmm…maybe I could move it?" Danny thought to himself.

Danny went over to the mosaic and tried pushing the stone portal, but he couldn't even make it move an inch. He put all his effort into just trying to make it move a little, but nothing happened. After only a few seconds, he gave up.

Danny groaned and sat down. "Okay, I guess I can't move it, either."

Danny slowly got up again. "It looks like the best way to stop them from opening up the portal would be to make sure I get the last shard of glass they need to finish this before they can get their hands on it."

Danny slowly started thinking to himself. "Yeah, that would work," he thought out loud. "As long as I find that piece before they do, I can destroy it and they won't be able to go through with their plan at all!"

Danny was feeling very proud and confident that all he needed to do was find a piece of glass and he put an end to Arkov's plan once and for all. Then, a thought came to him.

"Oh, great! Where am I supposed to start looking for a _single_ piece of glass?!"


	18. Hunt in the Maze

Danny knew there was nothing else he could do in the Deathbringers' Lair. He found the portal that would lead to the Plains of the Helpless Souls and he knew what he had to do to stop their plot, but now came the hard part: actually doing it.

There was nothing left Danny could do there. He left the Deathbringers' Lair and tried to find his way out without being detected. He ran out into the main hall. There was no one there.

"Huh?" Danny asked himself as he saw the halls were completely deserted. "Where are Noreen, Jerel and Arkov?"

Danny didn't want to take any chances, though. It could have been a trap and he knew it. He slowly started creeping his way down the halls. He frequently looked behind the corners and looked to see if any of the Deathbringers were there. When the course was clear, he made a run for the next door.

He repeated this process until he was finally out of the Deathbringers' Lair. He started flying away from it and back to the portal that took him home.

After several minutes of flying, Danny was soon back in his basement after crossing through the portal. But now he had to be careful about any of his family members catching him. Luckily, they all seemed to be out running errands or something, because the house was completely empty.

Danny was about to walk out the front door until he spotted something in the kitchen on the table. It was a photograph he saw Maddie looking at earlier. He went over to it and gingerly picked it up. It was a picture of him and his family all together and smiling.

He knew his mom was going through emotional pain when she was looking at that photo. And almost like the pain was getting transferred, Danny felt the pain as well. He looked a the photo and for the first time realized how happy he was to have that family. Yes, they were weird, but they were his family, and nothing could ever replace them.

Danny sighed and he slowly put the photo back down on the table. He sighed.

_I wish I could tell my family I was still partly alive, _Danny thought to himself as he continued to stare at the photograph. _I wish I could just come completely alive again- both my human form and my ghost form- and let them know how much I really cared._

Of course, Danny knew these thoughts would never work. He knew revealing that the ghost his parents were trying to capture was really him would only lead to trouble and chaos. He would be better off just keeping quiet.

Just as Danny was about to leave, he looked straight ahead and noticed something very peculiar on the refrigerator. There was a note, but he could tell the handwriting on it wasn't that of any one from his family.

Then, when Danny got closer and ripped the note off the refrigerator door, he lost his breath.

_Danny, we have taken your family. Give up on us, the Deathbringers, and your family will be spared. If not, you will never see them again._

The rows of Danny's teeth started mashing together with one another as Danny crumpled up the piece of paper until it was in a sphere shape and as tight as he could get it.

"They're really gonna pay for this now!" Danny yelled. "Didn't they learn a lesson from the last time they tried this at Sam and Tucker's memorial service?"

Not answering his own question, Danny dropped the crumpled up threatening note on the floor and started running down into the basement. He ran through the portal again and started flying towards the Deathbringers' Lair. But a short while into it, something unexpected popped up.

Right in Danny's path was the cloaked figure he had met a few times since the day this all started, and now he was getting sick and tired of having to put up with him.

The dark cloaked figure gave Danny a cold look (at least Danny _thought_ the figure was giving him a cold look, but he couldn't tell since the face was concealed) and put his hands up as if he was blocking Danny.

"Look, I really don't have time to deal with you," Danny said angrily. "Either get out of my way or I'll _force_ you to get out of my way!"

"Where are you going?" the cloaked figure asked in his threatening, croaking voice.

"What's it to you? I said move it! This is serious!"

"Where are you going?!"

"Fine. If you have to know, I'm going to the Deathbringers' Lair," Danny said. "Okay, I said it. Now move!"

The cloaked figure looked like he was getting ready to fight. "I thought that note told you not to come after us."

"Yeah, well I…wait a minute," Danny said, "How do you know about that note. You're not a Deathbringer!"

"Uh…" the cloaked figure said, starting to sound a little nervous.

"And if you _are_ a Deathbringer, then cut the act, because there are only three still alive," Danny said, sounding more confident and aggressive.

"I guess I must be one of those three…" the cloaked figure said, trying to put on his best act.

A cocky smile appeared on Danny's face. "I don't think so. None of the Deathbringers even sound like that. All right, playtime's over."

Danny held out his hand and got ready to fire a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the figure.

The figure even made a bit of a yelping sound and put his hands up as if it could somehow stop the blast.

A little surprised by how easy it was to make the cloaked figure surrender, Danny dropped his fists.

"Heh," Danny snickered. "Are you trying to scare me? Because you're doing a terrible job."

"Uh…well…"

Danny started laughing much harder now. "All right, I'm not afraid of a little wimp like you. Now where'd you take my family."

"I…didn't," the cloaked figure said, completely contradicting what he said a little while ago.

Danny put up his fists without saying a word. The cloaked figure responded by making another startled little yelp.

"Okay, okay!" the cloaked figure squeaked, abandoning all pretense and revealing himself as the weakling he actually was. "There's a maze right over there. Your family is hidden somewhere in there."

"Where?!" Danny demanded.

"I swear I don't know!" the cloaked figure said, backing away a little. (Judging by his voice and the way he looked, Danny would have had no idea how pathetic the cloaked figure really was)

Danny snarled but decided the cloaked figure wasn't worth the trouble. He flew to where the cloaked figure was pointing, and after flying for only a few minutes, he saw the maze the cloaked figure was talking about.

The maze looked like a standard maze, but it was so random just seeing it float in the middle of nowhere. The walls were made of thick concrete and there were several twists and turns in it.

Danny ran into the maze as soon as he saw it. The ground seemed to be made of dirt or some other earthen material, but everything else was very plain.

"Oh, great," Danny thought to himself. "I've got to find my family in _this_ place? Ugh…"

Danny started running through the giant maze very quickly and didn't spend much time at all investigating individual places. For the most part, he turned a corner, and if Jazz, Jack of Maddie weren't there, then he'd simply go back to running in the direction he was originally going in less than a second.

Danny had a nasty surprise when he was running through the maze after a while. He turned one corner and saw a figure standing there. But now he was used to just looking behind a corner and continuing to run. After he looked past a wall, he continued running, but abruptly stopped and turned at where he was going before.

Standing down the pathway that Danny took a quick glimpse at was the cloaked figure, standing there very menacingly.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" Danny yelled. "I thought I told you to leave me alone, you wimp!"

The cloaked figure held out his hand and fired a blast of dark energy at Danny. The ray hit Danny in the chest and sent him flying backwards against a wall a few feet behind him.

Danny grumbled as he got up and stared at the cloaked figure. "So, you want to fight?" Danny asked. "Fine! You're long overdue for one, anyway!"

The cloaked figure started floating a few inches above the ground and Danny started doing the same.

Danny flew over to the cloaked figure and fired a blast of ectoplasmic energy when he was only a few inches away. The cloaked figure was blasted backwards and hit the ground hard.

"So, you gonna show me where my family is now?" Danny asked as he bent over and lifted up the cloaked figure by the front of his dark cloak.

The figure didn't say anything; he just continued staring at Danny. (At least Danny assumed he was staring at him due to the face being concealed by the hood)

The cloaked figure grabbed Danny by the throat and threw him as hard as he could. Danny was flying through the air until he eventually crashed into one of the walls behind him.

Brushing off the pain, Danny got up and started charging at the cloaked figure again. He leaped into the air and gave the cloaked figure a hard kick to the head.

The cloaked figure fell backwards and onto the ground. He tried getting up but before he could, Danny grabbed him by the cloak and slammed him against a wall.

"Okay," Danny said. "Enough of this. Let's see who's under that hood."

Danny grabbed at the hood and was about to tear it off until the figure kicked him right in the nuts.

Danny dropped the figure and lost all his breath for a moment. He crouched down and tried absorbing the pain. He groaned in agony and tried to keep himself from reacting too strongly.

Danny breathed heavily and looked at the cloaked figure. The figure was standing there and just staring at him, almost like he was mocking him.

Then nothing happened for a little while. Danny didn't see why the figure didn't attack him or finish him. And he honestly didn't care.

Ignoring the pain, Danny fired a blast of energy at the figure and knocked him onto the ground.

The cloaked figure still refused to make a sound. Danny walked over to the figure and lifted him up by the collar once again.

"No more!" Danny yelled. "Ya here? You messed with me at a bad time! My two best friends are killed, I got an organization of ghosts who want me dead for not working with them, and now you go and you kidnap my family and pretend you're the Deathbringers? You're lucky I'm not doing my worst!"

The cloaked figure didn't say anything. Slowly, Danny's anger and rage subsided.

He got off the cloaked figure and looked at him with cold eyes.

"You gonna say something or not?" he asked, now sounding a little apologetic and remorseful about how angry he got a little while ago.

The cloaked figure got up and went over to Danny slowly. Then, when he was only a little while away from Danny, he suddenly fired a final blast of energy right into Danny's face.

Danny screamed as he fell backwards and landed hard on the ground. He was in pain and tearing at his face as he slowly made his way back up on to his two feet. He was wobbling for a little bit, but he gave the cloaked figure one of the coldest looks he had ever given before.

"That…is…it!" Danny hissed.

Danny charged at the cloaked figure and began firing a series of punches right into his face and knocking the figure back more and more with every single punch. At one point, he gave the figure an upper cut, which sent him flying into the air.

When the cloaked figure was flying in the air, Danny fired a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the figure.

The figure was hit with the beam of energy dead-on. The figure lifelessly fell to the ground and crumpled in a heap after that.

Danny was breathing heavily as he stared at the cloaked ghost lying motionless. He looked at the figure not moving, and then, without saying a word, walked away from him to continue looking for Jazz, Maddie and Jack.


	19. Complete Hatred

All right, before I start, thank you for those last two reviews. Now the question got raised about who the cloaked figure is. Well, I'm the only one who knows right now, although I would assume everyone has their own thoughts. The cloaked figure is passing himself off as a Deathbringer and Danny isn't buying it, but that's all your supposed to know about him right now.

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Danny was really fired up after his fight against that cloaked ghost. He had proven over and over that when he really put his mind to it, he was more than capable of taking on any enemy that dared to cross his path. But he was getting tired of having to prove it over and over.

Danny searched around the entire maze looking for his family members. If he had to spend all day looking in the maze, then he was willing to do it. He had to put the energy somewhere; it might as well have been towards keeping his family safe.

After running through the maze over and over, Danny was really getting frustrated with how hard it was for him to locate his family. He was running around for several minutes on end without any luck.

Occasionally, he would have to stop to catch his breath. He took his time recovering, though, because he knew that with the cloaked figure being defeated, he had no one left to worry about fighting.

Danny continued running for a very long time until he finally got some relief. Right at a dead end were Jazz and Maddie. They were tied together by a rope, but looked like they had abandoned all hope of breaking free. Apparently, they had tried to break free several times before but found it useless.

"Guys!" Danny yelled when he saw the two female members in his family tied up.

Jazz and Maddie snapped awake and looked at him and were clearly shocked by the looks on their faces. But Jazz's look was much more relieved while Maddie looked more hostile and angry.

"What do you want, ghost?!" Maddie yelled. "I'll bet this is all _your_ idea! Untie us from here now or suffer dire consequences!"

"Oh, if you insist," Danny said in a plain and uncaring tone. He walked over to his sister and his mother and untied the rope around them without too much effort.

Jazz and Maddie got up very quickly. They were about to start talking, but Danny started before both of them.

"All right, it was a cloaked figure that tied you up here, wasn't it?" Danny asked.

"And so what if it was?!" Maddie demanded, crossing her arms. "You're lucky I don't have any ghost weapons on me!"

"Mom!" Jazz yelled. "He just came to save us! _I don't know why he did something STUPID like risk his life_, but he saved us. Maybe he's not so bad after all?"

Maddie sighed. "Kids' minds are so naïve. They won't listen to anything you tell them."

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Yes, it was a cloaked figure that came and tied us up," Jazz politely answered.

"Well, we don't have to worry about him anymore," Danny said. "I fought him a little while ago and he's crying like a baby somewhere now. Just follow me out of here and…"

"No!" Maddie snapped. "I wouldn't follow you out of here if my life depended on it!"

"Well, it kind of looks like it _does_ depend on it," Danny said, "because if you don't follow me out of here, then I can't get you home, meaning you're just going to rot in this maze. I don't think we want that, do we?"

Maddie started growling defiantly, but Jazz gently started holding on to her mom's arm and said, "Mom, he's come to save us…_twice_. I think we can trust him."

"Fine, fine," Maddie said. "But don't say I didn't warn you when he ends up double crossing us and turns us over to his own ghost friends!"

_I don't HAVE any ghost friends…_Danny thought bitterly to himself when he heard his mom's untrusting comments.

Danny started leading Jazz and Maddie away from where they were tied up and tried to take them back to the entrance to long and twisting maze.

But getting them out of there wasn't Danny's first priority. Jack was still trapped in there somewhere, so he still wanted to look for his father as well. And knowing that the cloaked figure was beaten, he was in no rush to find Jack.

After looking around for a while, he finally found Jack, who was also tied up at a dead end.

"Jack!" Maddie yelled.

"Maddie! Jazz! What are you doing with that ghost?!" Jack yelled when he saw Danny was leading them.

"Dad!" Jazz yelled defensively. "He's helping us escape!"

"He's leading you into a trap!" Jack yelled.

"That's what I told her!" Maddie interjected.

"Will you all just please shut up and work with me?" Danny snapped as he walked over to untie his father. "Geez, if you guys are this defiant about someone saving your life, I can only imagine what you'll say if someone calls and says you won the lottery."

After Jack was untied he ran back over to his family. "Maddie, did you bring any ghost weapons?"

"How could I bring any?" Maddie asked. "We were captured! We were unprepared."

"Don't worry," Danny said. "As long as I'm leading you out, you won't need any weapons."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Jack said very suspiciously.

"I suppose you're just going to have to," Danny said, not turning to his family. "Now come on."

Danny started walking forward and tried to find his way out of the maze. But after walking for a little while, a giant blue ray of electricity fired into the ground right in front of them, causing all four family members to jump back from surprise.

After seeing the blue ray of electricity coming from above, Danny and everyone else looked up. The cloaked figure was floating about two yards above them and was staring down at them. After a few tense seconds, the figure levitated onto the ground and was soon staring right into Danny's face.

"Didn't I just fight you?" Danny asked.

"I guess you couldn't finish me!" the cloaked figure said in his voice that reminded Danny of a comic book villain.

"No, dude, I _definitely_ hurt you too much for you to be back like this so quickly," Danny said. "What's your secret?"

The cloaked figure took another step towards Danny. "I thought you were told not to go after the Deathbringers, and yet you disobey. Do you _want_ to see your family in danger?"

"Family?!" Maddie yelled. "Deathbringers?! What are you talking about!"

"There is no way that ghost could be one in our family, right, Jazz?" Jack yelled.

"Er…right!" Jazz tried to say confidently, but there was obvious nervousness in her voice.

"Well, then," the cloaked figure said, "I owe you some payback for what you said to me a little while ago! If you value your family's lives, do _not_ go after the Deathbringers!"

Danny's eyes twitched. Everything that had infuriated him and gave him a darker tone to his personality over the past couple of days had now reached its peak. He turned around and looked at his family members.

"All of you, scram and get somewhere safe!" Danny ordered very aggressively.

"We don't take orders from you!" Maddie yelled.

Maddie was cut off when Jazz tugged at her arm and pulled her away. "Come on, mom! You heard him!"

Jazz dragged Maddie off to behind a corner of the maze.

"Don't you treat your mother like that!" Jack yelled as he started storming after Jazz. Because of this, it was now just Danny and the cloaked figure in that part of the maze now.

The cloaked figure held out his hands and fired bolts of electricity from the tips of them. The volts hit Danny and sent him flying onto the hard, dirt floor of the maze.

"Hey!" Danny yelled as he got up. "Since when could you fire bolts of electricity?"

The cloaked figure jumped into the air and did a back flip over Danny and landed behind him, and then he fired more electricity and hit Danny in the back.

Danny fell to the floor, but got up scowling. He looked at the cloaked figure and gave him a very irritated and almost demonic look.

"You have no idea what I've been through…" Danny hissed as he held out his hand to get ready to fire a blast of energy.

"Oh, really?" the cloaked figure said. "I'll bet I do." The cloaked figure fired a few rays of electricity from his finger tips and the bolts collided with Danny's blast of energy, creating a giant white spark in the center but preventing either weapon from hitting their target.

"Yeah?" Danny said angrily while he struggled to push his blast against the cloaked figure's. "What's that?"

The cloaked figure suddenly jumped in the air and flew right over Danny and landed behind him again. Danny turned around and promptly received several jolts of electricity to the face.

Danny yelped in pain as the figure continued firing electricity at him. After only a few seconds, the cloaked ghost stopped attacking and seemed to almost watch in joy as Danny's face looked a little burnt and smoldering.

"All right," Danny said, anger and hatred filling his voice to the brim, "you've asked for it!"

Danny jumped in the air and seemed to have a giant surge of violence. He flew right over to the cloaked figure and picked him up by the front of his cloak. He started swinging the figure around until he eventually flipped the figure over his head and slammed him onto the ground back flat, creating a large cloud of dust from the dirt where the figure was slammed.

The figure moaned in pain, but Danny was nowhere close to finished yet. He jumped right in front of the cloaked figure and grabbed him by the front of the cloak and pulled him closer until their faces were only inches apart.

Danny's heart had now been replaced with a heated fire and he seemed to lack anything human about him now. There was an inner monster inside himself that had just erupted after everything, and he was making no effort to control it.

"So, a gang kills my friends and want me to help them!" Danny yelled as loud as he could in the figure's face. "Half of me ends up dying when I try to get some payback, and my family doesn't even appreciate me when I save them! Then you pop up and pretend to be part of the gang that killed my friends! And for what?! Huh?!"

Danny took his fist and slammed it into the cloaked figure's head so hard that cloaked figure let out a moan of pain that would make anyone sympathize, whether or not he was good or bad. But Danny was unaffected. He seemed to have lost the soul to care for anyone now.

"HUH?!" he raged, shaking the cloaked figure even harder and harder. "IS THAT RIGHT?!"

Danny didn't give the cloaked figure any time to respond. He promptly slammed the cloaked figure's head on the ground so hard that if it were a human, there was no doubt the skull would be permanently fractured. The cloaked figure stopped showing resistance after that.

Danny slowly got up but never took his hating look off the cloaked figure. He was breathing in and out very heavily and his fists were clenched and even seemed to be stained with invisible blood. A volcano was bursting inside Danny that showed no sign of ceasing any time soon.

Danny grabbed the cloaked figure by the back of the cloak and began dragging him away. Danny walked behind the corner of the maze where his family was hiding from the fight and he saw all of them standing there. Jazz looked pretty excited to see he was okay and emerged victorious, but her smile immediately faded when she saw him and how cold and heartless he looked.

"All three of you, get over here now!" Danny commanded and pointed to a spot right in front of him.

Surprised by the ghost's sudden aggression, Jack, Maddie and Jazz wasted no time. They ran over to the spot right in front of Danny where he pointed.

When they were all there, Danny used his free hand and grabbed all three of them at the same time by the back of their shirts (or jumpsuits) and started flying away, carrying the cloaked figure in one hand and his family in the other.

_Danny…_ Jazz thought to herself. _What's happened to you?_

Danny flew his family back to the portal leading into their basement.

"There. There's the way back to your house," Danny coldly and hatefully said to his family. His anger all stemming from revenge was getting way out of hand and reached its climax. And he almost seemed to like it that way.

No, he didn't _seem_ to like it. He _did_ like it. No, _loved _it.

Danny let his family members go and they instantly proceeded into the portal as quickly as possible.

"And the next time I save you guys, you damn well better appreciate it!" Danny scolded after them as they walked through the portal and back home.

When his family was out of ear shot, he looked at the cloaked figure, who he still had in his other hand.

"And don't even think for a second I'm done with you!" Danny said in an icy, quiet tone.

Danny threw the figure onto the ground as hard as he could. The figure moaned in pain as Danny bent down and grabbed the figure by the front of the cloak yet again. His hatred and the darkness all stemming from revenge within him was now boiling over. It was uncontrollable now. He could only hope the monster he had let out was going to give up soon.

But of course, he _wasn't_ hoping that.

Danny grabbed the cloaked figure's hood and gripped it like his life depended on it. "Let's see who you really are," he said in the most malicious voice he ever. In fact, his entire voice seemed to change from a casual teenager to someone who just got possessed. (While still retaining the basic tone) "Because I want to be able to look right into your eyes and I want you to be able to look right into mine as I kill you."


	20. Back Together

Taking a deep breath, Danny gripped the hood of the cloaked figure and yanked it off, revealing the cloaked person's identity.

"N…no!" Danny yelled breathlessly when he saw who it was.

Danny seemed to lose all sense of balance. He suddenly stood up straight but started walking backwards. After only taking a few steps, he fell backwards and landed hard on the ground.

"It…can't be!" Danny said breathlessly and in complete shock. "This…can't be real!"

The cloaked figure stood up and started slowly approaching Danny. Only a few seconds before, it was the figure on the ground and Danny standing; now it was the exact opposite.

Danny was staring into the surprisingly sympathetic eyes of Tucker.

"…Tuck?" Danny finally asked nervously, barely able to find the breath to make out that one syllable.

It was indeed Tucker under the cloak. Except he didn't look normal. His face looked like a much lighter shade of brown and he looked like he had some sort of illness.

"Surprised?" Tucker asked, acting almost like Danny had never been ready to kill him.

"But…I thought you were dead," Danny said in a very quiet whisper.

Tucker didn't smile, although it looked like he wanted to. "I am. I'm a ghost now."

"A ghost…" Danny said breathlessly. "This whole time, _you_ were the one fighting me and telling me not to go after the Deathbringers?"

"Yup," Tucker said, still looking like he wanted to smile.

"But why?" Danny asked. "Why'd you fight me?"

Tucker looked defensive. "Hey, last I checked, _you_ were the one fighting _me_. I was just trying to keep you out of trouble."

"What?"

"Sam and I were just trying to keep you out of trouble," Tucker answered.

Danny's eyes widened even more. "You…and Sam? Then does that mean?..."

Before Danny could finish his trail of thought, _another _cloaked figure came down and landed right beside Danny. Without Danny even doing anything, the cloaked figure removed his hood, and it proved to be none other than Sam.

"Sam!" Danny gasped breathlessly. He couldn't believe it. Everything he thought he knew was suddenly turned upside down. He didn't know what was right any more. He didn't even know if the Deathbringers were truly his enemies now.

No. _That_ much he was still sure of.

"Well, thanks for letting the cat out of the bag, Tucker," Sam said, putting her hands on her hips.

Sam, too, was a ghost. She looked a lot like a creature of the night now in her ghost form. If she wasn't Danny's friend, Danny would think that she looked like a formidable foe.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" Tucker snapped.

"No, I mean thanks for telling him that I was in on it as well," Sam said.

Danny was in complete shock right now. He had no idea what was going on. He looked up at his two friends.

"So…when I thought I was fighting the same guy all along…" Danny slowly choked out as he took turns alternating between looking at Sam and Tucker, "I was really fighting both of you?"

"That's right," Sam said, crossing her arms and giving Danny a very plain look.

"Hmmmm," Danny said very sadly. "Well, that explains how you suddenly got up on your feet again so quickly after the pounding I gave you."

There was a very awkward silence. It would be impossible for Danny to describe what he was feeling. This entire time, he was going after the Deathbringers to avenge his two friends. Now that he knew they were still alive (sort of) he had no idea what to do…

Then Danny finally snapped awake. He looked at his two friends and his hating and his violent look was now gone. He felt like an empty body with absolutely nothing inside of it after how quickly the desire for revenge left. He felt nothing at all now. Nothing.

"Guys, why couldn't you just let me know who you were?" Danny asked very seriously. "I wouldn't have fought that hard if I knew that the ones under the cloak the whole time were you two."

"Of course you wouldn't have," Tucker said. "But I already told you: it was for your own protection."

"What do you mean, 'my own protection'?" Danny asked.

"We knew how much you wanted to go after the Deathbringers," Sam said. "And we knew how strong they really were and how powerful they were."

"How did you know that?"

"Hey, we got killed by them, didn't we?"

"Oh…right."

"We were just trying to keep you out of trouble, man," Tucker said. "If we revealed our identities, we thought you would have gone after the Deathbringers for sure."

Danny looked really glum now. He was guilt ridden for how hating and how dark he had allowed himself to become. It all emptied out of him so quickly his body wasn't reacting to it well at all. He felt like he just wanted to scream from all the guilt that was suddenly pouring into him.

Danny just grabbed his hair and looked down at the ground. He let out a loud scream.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam asked with a lot of concern in her voice.

"I just feel so awful!" Danny said. There was no emotion in his voice, but somehow a large amount of it could easily be sensed coming from him. "This whole time I was turning into a monster and letting some other part of me take over, and it didn't even do me any good at all!"

"Danny, it's okay," Sam said, trying to comfort him. "You're okay, and we're okay. You can give up worrying about the Deathbringers now."

Danny let out a huge sigh and looked down at the ground. He closed his eyes.

_Yeah…_he said to himself, almost laughing about it. _Yeah, I can, can't I?_

Then Danny's expression suddenly turned very serious again. He looked up at his friends but still looked very sad.

"No," he sternly told them.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" Tucker asked.

"No, I can't forget about them," Danny said. "Even if I can't go after them for revenge anymore, I still gotta go after them!"

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

For the first time during probably this whole ordeal, Danny was putting the safety of everyone in front of his own desires for revenge.

"The Deathbringers are up to something really dangerous," Danny said. Now he really felt the need to protect everyone-an urge that he hadn't had for a long time. "I got to stop those guys!"

"Stop them from doing what?" Tucker asked.

"The Deathbringers are trying to become super powerful," Danny said, still very glumly. "They're working on finding the missing piece to some portal that will take them to a place called the Plains of the Helpless Souls."

"The Plains of the Helpless Souls?" Sam asked. "What's that?"

"It's a place ghosts go when they die."

"Ghosts can…"

"Yes, they can," Danny said. "Although when a ghost dies, it's doomed to just remain on the Plains of the Helpless Souls for all eternity, just floating there and not feeling anything. No pain, no sadness, no joy, no nothing. It's just…there, and it just floats aimlessly for the rest of eternity."

"Whoa," Sam said. "That's kind of depressing."

"Yeah, it is," Danny said. "But it's sealed off by some portal so no one can get there. Except now those Deathbringers not only have found out how to construct the portal, but they've almost entirely completed making it."

"So?" Tucker asked. "What's the big deal if they find a way to make a portal there?"

"Because they've also been working on a machine that can take the ectoplasma from a dead ghost on the Plains of the Helpless Souls when they die and turn that ectoplasma into power that they put in themselves," Danny explained.

Sam and Tucker looked really nervous now.

"That's kinda bad," Tucker said.

"Uh…yeah it is," Danny said bluntly. "They've finished the machine, I think, and now they're literally just a piece away from finishing the portal."

"What do you mean, 'a piece'?" Sam asked.

Danny forced a small chuckle and pretended to be scratching the back of his head. "I guess I should have explained the portal better. The portal to the Plains of the Helpless Souls is really a mosaic thing that will open the portal when it's completed. And now the Deathbringers are only one piece short of finishing the portal."

Sam and Tucker now looked really concerned. "So if they find that last piece first, then they're going to get to the Plains of the Helpless Souls and use the ectoplasma from all the dead ghosts there to enhance their own strength to probably do something like take over the world?" Tucker clarified.

"That's just about right," Danny said very lowly. "But there are a few bits of good news."

Sam and Tucker looked very curious.

"First of all," Danny started, "I'm assuming they don't know where that last shard of glass is, so it's safe to say they're still looking. And it'll probably take them a while before they find that last piece, so as long as they don't have that last bit of glass, we still haven't lost. That'll give me plenty of time to kill them all."

"What do you mean you're going to kill them all?" Tucker asked.

Danny didn't laugh or smile at all. "What does it sound like?"

"Danny, there are two problems with that," Sam said. "First of all, you now know that killing a Deathbringer will send them to the Plains of the Helpless Souls forever, meaning they're going to be spending the rest of eternity with no emotion and no sense of being alive. Are you sure you want to do that?"

"I'm sure," Danny said in a decisive way. "If sacrifices have to be made here, I'd rather a few ghosts had to go instead of thousands of innocent people if their plan succeeds."

"Second," Sam said, "how do you plan on killing all five of them? You were killed by one and _we_ were killed by one."

"That's not something I'm worrying about," Danny tried to say confidently. "I've already beaten two of them, so I'm pretty sure I can take on the other three."

"Who were the two you killed?" Sam asked.

"Claude, who was this French guy or whatever, and the other was Gippy, the one who looked like a fully grown guy but acted like a three year old," Danny said.

"Well, doesn't that leave Arkov?" Tucker asked. "I mean, Arkov looks like he won't be a walk in the park if we try to fight him."

Danny just sighed. "Look, I can understand you guys not having faith in me," Danny explained. "But you've got to trust me on this one. If we don't do something, those Deathbringers are going to have the whole world at their mercy. I'm the only one who can do anything about them, so just please leave them to me."

Sam and Tucker looked horrified and Danny's last remark.

"What?" Danny asked very casually. "Did I say something stupid?"

"Danny, how can you say you're the only one who can do anything?!" Tucker yelled.

"Yeah," Sam added. "You've…"

"No, no, NO!" Danny yelled, purposely cutting Sam off. "I know what you're getting at and I'm not going to allow it, all right?"

"Danny, we're…"

"No!" Danny yelled again. "My main objective right now is to stop the Deathbringers from making that portal. The way I see it, I've got to make sure I get to that last piece of glass before them and…"

Suddenly, Sam's eyes widened. She looked like she was remembering something very important now.

"Sam?" Danny asked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Danny, for some reason, you saying 'piece of glass' just made me remember something!"

"What?" Danny said with obvious confusion. "How?"

"I don't know," Sam said. She looked like she was having an internal struggle with herself. She looked up at Danny like she had just made a startling revelation that was going to shake up the whole thing.

"Danny, I think I know something about that last piece of glass!" Sam said anxiously but very seriously.


	21. Last Piece Obtained

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked anxiously. "You think you know where that last piece of glass is?"

"Yeah," Sam said, almost sounding excited. "When Tucker and I tried capturing your family to scare you away from the Deathbringers and putting yourself in danger, your dad was making a bunch of empty threats and trying to convince me to let him go."

"Heh, not surprised," Danny remarked.

"But he was begging me to do whatever he wanted to him but to not touch his prized possession," Sam explained.

Danny's eyes widened. "My old man has a prized possession?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "He said it was something he got in the Ghost Zone. He told me it was a piece of glass that he found and suspected another ghost broke it and he wanted to keep it as a souvenir."

Danny looked excited, but then his face promptly went flat. "You can't really think that piece of glass is…"

"I don't know," Sam said. "Does this look like it?"

Sam reached into her cloak's pocket and pulled out the shard of glass Jack was proudly showing Danny only a few days before. The glass piece was bright green and had a strange aura about it. Danny carefully studied it and tried to picture the mosaic in his head. He tried to remember the shape of the missing piece of the mosaic, and then he looked at the piece of glass Sam was holding.

The missing patch of the mosaic looked exactly like the piece of glass Sam was holding.

Danny was speechless. "That's it," he said. It looked like he was trying to smile, but he was still so gloomy about how he had been acting before he found out Sam and Tucker were the ones he had been threatening to kill and hurting so violently.

Danny grabbed it from Sam's hand, but then he felt something slam at the back of his head that was easily going over eighty miles an hour. Danny got knocked to the ground and was lucky he wasn't knocked unconscious. As he fell to the ground, he heard Sam and Tucker both scream his name.

Danny was looking to the side when he was on the ground and he saw a basketball was bouncing right next to him. He instantly knew what was going on. He got up and turned around, and Jerel and Noreen were floating only a few feet away from them. Noreen looked very angry as always, but Jerel looked very proud of himself.

"Three pointer!" Jerel yelled pointing up to the sky as if he were number one.

"Jerel…Noreen…" Danny mumbled as he rubbed the back of his sore head where Jerel just sent the basketball flying incredibly fast at him.

Noreen soared over to Danny and fired one quick blast to his face. Danny let out a small scream as he fell backwards. When he was on the ground again, Noreen opened up his hand and grabbed the piece of glass in it-the last piece to make up the mosaic.

"Watch to make sure no one's eavesdropping next time, kid," Noreen advised as she flew back to Jerel.

Noreen flipped the piece of glass in her hand to Jerel, who instantly jumped in the air and began floating as he caught it. He pocketed the piece of glass and started chanting very loudly, "We're number one! We're number one! We're number one! We're number one!"

Still chanting that, Jerel flew away so fast that Danny and his friends could barely see him leave.

But Danny had other things to worry about now. Noreen was still floating in place with her arms crossed and looking like she was ready to fight. "I'll finish you now, kid," she said as she started forming something in her hand. It took the shape of two small revolvers, taking all the kids by surprise.

"Y…you have firearms?" Danny asked in a very unconfident voice. "Why…"

"I didn't get into the Deathbringers because I was nice and didn't kill anybody, kid," Noreen said very coldly as she pointed her guns right at Danny.

Danny tried getting up and putting up a ghostly shield, which managed to deflect two bullets Noreen fired. Danny warily turned to his friends when he tried defending himself.

"Guys…get out here while you still can!" Danny ordered them.

"No way!" Sam said.

"Yeah, we're fighting here with you!" Tucker responded.

Simultaneously, Tucker and Sam grabbed the top of their cloaks and tore them off, revealing the outfits they were as ghosts.

Sam was wearing a completely black shirt that covered her entire upper body, except for her hands and her head. She was wearing completely black pants and very high heeled black shoes that added about three inches to her height.

Tucker was wearing something out of a sci-fi movie. He was wearing a one piece suit but it was more of a dark shade of blue. There were lots of small wires and computer parts around it, making it look like Tucker was wearing a hard drive or a computer chip or something like that.

"Come on, Danny!" Tucker yelled. "We've got her three-to-one!"

Noreen glared at three teenagers in front of her. She got both of her revolvers in a firing position and started hovering in the air above them.

"All right, kids," she said, "This is what happens when you mess with the Deathbringers!"

Noreen started firing her two revolvers at all of them and they went surprisingly fast. Instead of firing one bullet and having to wait a few seconds for it to fire again, the bullets fired non stop, more like a machine gun.

Danny started diving out of the way and tried his best to avoid all the bullets that were being fired at him. He could almost see the small bits of metal go shooting past him as he tried to evade the shots.

"Danny!" Sam yelled.

She held out her hand and fired a ray of dark energy at Noreen and knocked her to the ground. It was the same purple beam that Danny had frequently seen when he tried to fight the cloaked figures.

But Noreen was only temporarily stunned. She was up again and doing surprisingly complicated aerobics, despite looking like she was in her sixties.

Tucker ran over to her and held out his fingers and started firing bolts of electricity from his fingertips, and those bolts also sent Noreen backwards a few feet. She slammed on the ground and looked up and saw Danny was now hovering several feet above her.

"See ya!" Danny taunted as he got ready to fire his own blast of energy at her.

Noreen pulled out both of her revolvers and fired them simultaneously, with several bullets nailing Danny in the chest.

Danny screamed as he collapsed onto the ground. But to his surprise, he was able to get up and fight again with the only difference being a burn he felt on his chest whenever he tried breathing.

"Hmmmm…guess those bullets can't actually kill someone," Danny said.

Noreen snarled, but still continued firing her two revolvers.

Now Sam and Tucker were trying to weave their way past all the bullets being fired at them. They both jumped in the air and flew to opposite sides of Noreen; Tucker was in front of her while Sam was behind. They both got ready to fire an attack on her at the same time.

But Noreen was also ready. She pointed one of her revolvers at both of them and fired at them at the same instant.

The bullets hit Sam and Tucker, sending both of them on to the ground. But they quickly got up and were back in the fight.

Noreen got ready to fire at them again, but Danny flew down from the air right behind her and spun her around so they were now facing each other. He punched her in the face, and when she was trying to recover from the blast, Danny grabbed one of the guns from her hand and tried to force it from her.

Both of them started struggling for a while as Danny tried to wrench the gun from her hand as Noreen tried to keep it in.

But almost like Noreen had a sixth sense, she could somehow tell Sam and Tucker were running up from behind her to help Danny. Using her free hand with the other revolver, she fired a few bullets and hit Sam and Tucker with them, successfully stalling them for a while.

Noreen then used the same revolver she just used to shoot Sam and Tucker and turned it towards Danny's face. She fired it before Danny had time to react. Like his two friends, Danny fell backwards when the bullets hit him in the face.

Noreen pocketed one revolver and started forming a blast of energy in her hands. She aimed it at Danny and began taunting him. "Pathetic. You outnumber me and you still can't win. And you thought you could stall our plans."

Behind her, Sam was slowly getting up. She started charging a ball of purple-black energy in her hand and was ready to fire it at Noreen, but once again, Noreen seemed to use her sixth sense and fired her revolver at Sam, causing Sam to collapse on the ground next to Tucker again.

Still charging up the energy in her hand, she fired the blast at Danny. But at the last second, Danny put up a shield and blocked the blast. The blast was reflected and sent back at Noreen and hit her in the head.

Noreen flew backwards from the impact of the blast. She fell onto the ground, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the three teenagers were now hovering over her and getting ready to attack.

Danny flew down and grabbed Noreen by the back of her head and held her up.

"Guys?" Danny asked as he held Noreen right in front of them both.

"Way ahead of you," Tucker said proudly.

He and Sam began beating Noreen as savagely and as violently as he they could. They both finished up by giving her two uppercuts back to back and sending her into the air.

When Noreen was in the air, Danny fired one more blast and hit her when she was still going higher. The blast pushed her into the air even faster.

Then Noreen finally started falling. When she fell, she hit the ground very hard. She slowly got up and it was obvious how much pain she was in.

Danny saved her the trouble of getting up by pulling her up by the hair. He gave her a smug smile and looked at her.

"Here's for killing my friends," he said as if his vengeance had finally been fulfilled. He fired a blast at her face and that seemed to be the finishing blow.

Noreen slowly slumped backwards. She tried to stand up again, but she was only able to get on one knee. She looked around at the three teenagers forming a circle around her, preventing her from escaping.

Then, Noreen started disappearing. While Danny expected this to happen, Sam and Tucker were shocked by it.

"Danny, what's going on?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, why's she doing that?" Sam added.

Danny just continued watching Noreen disappear instead of answering his friends' questions.

"Don't think you kids are anything great," she said. "I promise you, if you go after Jerel and Arkov, you _will _die…"

Then Noreen started disappearing in the same cloud of smoke that Gippy and Claude died in before her. Danny watched happily as the last traces of Noreen disappeared.

After only a few more moments, Noreen was completely gone. There was no trace of her left.

Then there was a long silence. Sam and Tucker stared in disbelief and confusion about what happened. They had a pretty strong idea about what just happened, but they couldn't be sure. And they didn't want to accept their suspicion.

"Danny, what just happened?" Sam finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Noreen's gone," Danny finally answered.

"Gone? You don't mean…"

"Yeah."

"Then you know she's probably at the Plains of the Helpless Souls now, right?" Sam brought up. "You've just sentenced her to spend all eternity wandering around aimlessly with no sense of life at all now, right?"

"I know," Danny said.


	22. Final Goodbye Preparations

Whoa, I don't normally get that many reviews at once. Thank you very much for all of them, you guys. Please keep them coming. Oh, and to answer your question Linda, no, they do not know he's dead yet.

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There was a very long silence. No one said anything for a very long time. Danny had just decided he was fine with just sentencing Noreen to the Plains of the Helpless Souls forever.

"Well, now that Jerel has the last piece of the mosaic, don't you think we should go after him?" Sam asked.

"What? Uh…sure," Danny said very glumly.

Sam and Tucker got ready to start flying away, but they turned around and saw Danny was just standing there, staring very sadly at the ground.

"Danny, what is it?" Sam asked.

Danny didn't say anything. He just stared at the ground for a very long time before he finally looked up and started screaming.

"Danny!" Sam shrieked. "What's wrong?"

Danny looked like he was going through a fit of mental insanity.

"This entire time I've just been going after the Deathbringers for revenge!" Danny yelled.

"Dude, we've already talked about this," Tucker said, trying to sound as understanding as possible. "We're cool."

"No!" Danny yelled. "I mean…"

Then he let out another scream charged with emotion and anger.

"Danny, what's wrong?!" Sam asked again.

"I was so crazy for revenge it was becoming part of me!" Danny said. "Now that I know you guys are okay, that urge is gone! It was because I thought you guys were dead that I was out for revenge. And before I knew it, the thirst for revenge had taken over me! I became a completely different person! I turned into an animal or something."

"Come on, that's understandable enough," Tucker said. "I'm sure Sam and I would have been the same way if we thought that happened to you."

"Yeah, but now I know you guys aren't completely dead," Danny said very sadly. "And now that I know that, the part of me wanting revenge is gone. But that had completely overtaken me, so now I don't really feel like…anything."

"Huh?" Sam asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I feel like I don't have any emotions or anything at all now. I guess that's how much I wanted revenge…"

"Hey, when you're ready to quit acting like that blonde old scientist guy who blew himself up, we can go after Jerel!" Tucker reminded, sounding a little impatient with the way Danny was talking.

"Yeah," Danny said, realizing that moping about how he felt like the only part of him was now gone would get him nowhere.

"So, we're ready to go then?" Sam asked.

"What, you guys actually want to come with me, even though it's my problem?" Danny asked.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Danny said. "Even if they're all dead, friends can still help each other out."

"Yeah, except Sam and I are the only ones who are actually dead," Tucker said inputted, smiling.

"Actually…" Danny said.

Danny then proceeded to tell Sam and Tucker about the main thing that had happened. He told them about how he had lost the fight with Arkov and how his human half died.

"Whoa," Tucker said. "So you're nothing more than a ghost as well?"

"Yeah," Danny said.

"Why can't you just tell your parents?" Sam asked.

"You think they'd actually believe me if I said I was the ghost of their son?" Danny asked.

"What about Jazz?"

"Then _she'd_ try telling my parents and then they'd think _she_ was crazy," Danny said in a plain tone.

"So, we're all pretty much doomed to spend the rest of our lives like this, then?" Tucker asked.

" 'Fraid so," Danny said, trying to force a smile.

"Uh…guys, when you're done moping about how you're never going to get to go back to your families and live with them again, how about we go to the Deathbringers' Lair and try to stop them before it's too late?"

"Good thinking," Danny said. "We've wasted enough time talking. Come on, let's go."

Sam and Tucker were about to fly off until Danny stopped them once again. "Wait, Tuck!"

Tucker stopped and turned around and looked concerned at what Danny had to say.

"Danny, what is it?"

Danny made a real smile for the first time in a long time. "Tron called. He wants his outfit back," he said, making fun of Tucker's ghost suit.

"Ha, ha!" Tucker sarcastically said.

In no time, the trio was finally on the way to the Deathbringers' Lair. They looked at the sheer size of it and couldn't help but be amazed.

"Wow," Sam said. "This place is huge? We're going to have to look for them in _this_?"

"Yeah, but try not to be intimidated by it," Danny said. "All we have to do is go in there and finish Jerel and Arkov and it will all be over."

"Heh," Sam smirked. "You make it sound so easy."

"Easy or not, this looks like an awesome stage for the final battle!" Tucker said when they walked in.

Sam and Tucker seemed taken back by the long and dark hallways in it. They looked like they were going to get lost very quickly with all the twisting corners and all the side doors.

Danny laughed when he saw how nervous they looked.

"Hey guys, don't worry about it," Danny said. "I know it looks like a lot at first, but trust me, it's not that bad. Just follow me."

----------------------------------- ------------------------- ---------------------------- ------------

In the real world, it was now the morning of the funeral. Everyone in Danny's family was getting touched up and trying to look very nice for the funeral.

Jazz was in her room styling her hair and trying on dress after dress and tried to find which one she thought looked the best. She repeatedly looked in a mirror to see how well all her makeup looked. Whenever something didn't look quite right, she immediately made adjustments.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Jazz tried to say in a cheery way, despite the circumstances and what she was preparing herself for later that morning.

Maddie slowly walked in the door. She had gotten rid of her blue jumpsuit and was now wearing a pale blue dress and earrings and a necklace that Jazz didn't even know her mom had.

"Jazz?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"I just got off the phone with Sam and Tucker's parents. Apparently they're going to do the burial fight after the funeral."

"What do you mean?"

"Their families decided that right after the kids' funerals, they want the bodies to go right to the cemetery where we'll say our final goodbyes."

"That soon?" Jazz asked.

"Yes," Maddie said in a very sad voice.

Then, something very loud was heard. In fact, it was so loud, it made Jazz jump. It sounded like en elephant or some other large animal snarling.

"What was _that_?" Jazz asked.

Maddie sighed. "Looks like your father is going to need more tissues."

Maddie walked out of the bedroom, but then stopped and looked back at Jazz. "We're leaving in about thirty minutes," she said.

"Okay," Jazz said, still trying to sound cheerful.

Maddie smiled and gently closed the door. After her mom closed the door, Jazz looked at herself in the mirror. Then she started crying.

------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------ ---------

Back inside the Deathbringers' Lair, Danny was confidently leading his two friends around the place. But even though he was walking with confidence, he was nervous. But not nervous about losing his way or losing a fight against Jerel and Arkov. Instead, he was afraid for the safety of his two friends.

"Guys, are you sure you want to go through with this?" Danny asked.

"Danny, we already said we were going to do this," Sam said. "It's because of us that you got tied up in this whole Deathbringer thing. I think it's only fair we help you end it."

"But if you lose the fight, you're going to spend forever wandering around the Plains of the Helpless Souls. You don't really want that, do you?" Danny asked.

"Of course not," Tucker said. "But if it'll help you and save the world from these freaks, then we're than willing to do it."

Danny was just realizing now what truly great friends he had. He was now just realizing their loyalty and how much they were willing to sacrifice for him. He just wished he could have realized it when he was alive.

Danny sighed as he continued leading Sam and Tucker around the giant lair. He didn't want to let them know it, but he was a little nervous about what was about to happen. All that they had to do to save the world was defeat two ghosts, but Danny knew these weren't two common, everyday ghosts. No, he knew that these ghosts were bad news, especially Arkov.

"Danny, are you sure you know where you're going?" Sam asked a little concerned.

"Of course," Danny confidently said. "I've been here plenty of times already. I know where that portal is."

"How much further is it?" Tucker asked.

"It should still be a little while away," Danny answered. "Look, you guys gotta stop worrying. I know what I'm doing."

Not once during his reassuring did Danny look at either of his friends.

------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- -----------------------

Tucker's parents were getting on their best clothes. They wanted to look extra special for their son's memorial service and burial later that morning.

At one point, Tucker's dad gently went over to his son's bed and gingerly picked up his son's PDA on it. He let out a sad sigh as he remembered how important that one gadget was to his son. Then he slowly placed it back down on Tucker's bed.

The couple then looked at each other. Sadness was clearly visible in their eyes. Slowly, they walked over to each other. They slowly lifted their arms up and embraced each other in their arms.

They knew the time was coming to say their final good-byes to Tucker.

-------------------------------------- --------------------------- ------------------- ------------------

Danny continued leading his friends through the giant maze that was the Deathbringers' Lair. This place had been like a place of pain for Danny ever since his journey started. Now that same place would be where it would all end.

_How ironic_, Danny thought to himself when he realized this.

"Danny, are you okay?" Sam asked, breaking Danny's trail of thought.

"Huh? Wha?" Danny asked. "Oh, sure. I'm fine. Don't worry. Almost there."

Danny went back to leading the way to the portal.

--------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- -----------------------------------

Sam's parents were putting on their very best clothes. Her mom was putting on a tube of crimson lipstick and other makeup to make herself look pretty while her father got himself dressed up in a formal looking suit.

While her husband was trying to make himself look as nice as possible, Sam's mom went over to her daughter's bed. All her Goth clothes and accessories were there: dark shirts and pants, dark purple and black makeup, several more "disturbing" magazines and a several CDs of Marilyn Manson.

She sighed as he looked down at the paraphernalia on her daughter's bed. She never did like her daughter being Goth, but now that Sam was dead and no longer with them, she almost missed seeing all the Goth decorations in her room.

She eventually turned away and saw her husband had been staring at her the whole time. Both of them were having an emotional internal battle, and it was clearly visible on their faces.

They knew the time was coming to say their final good-byes to Sam.

-------------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------- ----------------

"Man, Danny, how much further is it?" Tucker asked impatiently.

"Yeah, you sure you know where you're going?" Sam once again asked.

"For the last time, yes," Danny said without any emotion as he continued trudging forward. "Don't worry, the portal is only a little further ahead."

Danny was sure about this. There was one more door to the side. He looked at Sam and Tucker for the first time since they started walking through the Deathbringers' Lair.

"The portal is right behind here, guys," Danny said. "Meaning Arkov and Jerel are probably behind it as well. Are you ready to finally end this?"

"Ready as ever!" Tucker yelled.

"I was born ready," Sam said, giving Danny a small smile.

"Great," Danny said proudly. He turned back towards the door. "All right. Portal…Jerel…_Arkov_…here we come!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------

What a coincidence, huh, Linda? You ask if they know he's a ghost the chapter before he would have revealed the secret anyway. Good timing.


	23. Close to the End

Danny stared in awe and disbelief. His face was completely frozen in a shocked expression. His jaw was dropped and his hands were stiff at his sides.

"Danny?" Sam asked. "Weren't you going to show us where the portal was?"

"It was supposed to be right here!" Danny yelled, pointing to an empty spot in front of them.

He was indeed in the right room. There was no mistaking that the portal was now mysteriously gone.

"Danny, I thought you knew where the portal was!" Tucker snapped.

"I did!" Danny insisted. "I'm telling you, it was right here the last time I came here!"

Sam sighed. "Don't worry, it's got to be somewhere."

Before Danny could say anything in response, a mocking laugh was heard. The three teenagers looked around and finally saw where it was coming from. Then, right in front of them, Jerel jumped down and looked at all three of them.

"Heh," he remarked. "I see Noreen wasn't able to take the series from you. But if free agencies existed for us Deathbringers, well, she'd be one I'd sign away on a flip of the coin."

"Quit the sports talk," Danny ordered, even though he knew full well Jerel would never listen to him. "Where's the portal?"

"What portal? Oh, you mean the one you and your friends were gracious enough to finish for us? Arkov moved it to his room back there with the portal, and he's about to put that last piece of the mosaic in and open it up. Oh yes, don't worry. The machine is back there as well," Jerel explained.

Danny tried to fire a blast of energy at Jerel, but Jerel was able to jump out of the way easily. He escaped by jumping into the air and floating.

"You clever little kid," Jerel said. "Trying to go for a blitz, eh? Well, now it's my turn!"

Jerel held out his arms and he spread his legs, so he almost looked like a ghostly human shaped starfish floating in mid air. A football helmet suddenly appeared on his head, boxing gloves with spikes sticking out of the knuckles appearing on his hands, a very strong looking uniform worn by football players appeared on his upper and lower body, and basketball shoes with spikes sticking out of the front of the shoes appeared on his feet. A baseball bat appeared in his right hand and a basketball appeared in his left hand.

"I've gotta admit, you kids put up a pretty good game all the way into overtime," Jerel said with his equipment beginning to worry the three teenagers. "You thought you were going to win, didn't you? Well, prepare to fail as bad as the 2004 New York Yankees!"

Jerel threw the basketball up into the air and hit it with his baseball bat. The ball went flying right over to Danny, but Danny jumped out of the way.

When the ball went by him, Danny saw the ball smashed right through the concrete wall behind him. He was lucky to have the ball miss, because if it hit him, it would have literally caused him to lose his head.

"Oh, looks like I hit a foul," Jerel said. "Oh well. Next one will be right out of the park!"

Jerel did the same thing again after he summoned another deadly basketball. He swung his bat at it and it came within inches of hitting Danny again. In fact, it would have hit him if Sam didn't put her hand out and fire some black energy at it, causing it to burst on impact.

"Impressive, kids," Jerel said. "But I think you're forgetting who has home field advantage here!"

Jerel made the baseball bat and basketball disappear and they were replaced with a bladed hockey stick and golf club.

"Watch me get an eagle on a par three by annihilating all of you with one swing!" Jerel yelled.

Taking the golf club, he charged towards the three kids and started swinging it surprisingly fast. The three friends had to stay on their toes or else they would get it with the golf club right in the head and probably be knocked unconscious. (If they were lucky)

As they were jumping around and trying to avoid Jerel's golf club, Tucker pointed something out.

"We're never gonna beat this guy if we just keep dodging!" he yelled.

"Yeah, but we won't beat him either if we stop trying to dodge and end up getting hit!" Sam countered.

"Oh, looks like there are a few disagreements in the locker room!" Jerel yelled as he continued swinging.

The kids continued to have to job to the side to stay alive before Jerel nailed them with one his sports-esque weapons.

"You may as well just give up," Jerel remarked. "It's the fourth quarter and you're six touchdowns away from just tying the game and my team has the ball! You can't win!"

"Yeah?" Danny said. "Well, an interception can happen at any time, _if you know what I mean!_"

Jerel laughed at Danny's smart remarks. But when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere just by swinging golf clubs at them, he got rid of all the objects in his hand. The vaporized into thin air and Jerel instead put his fists up like he was about to spar. The spikes on his boxing gloves seemed to grow longer and sharper.

"It's over, kids," Jerel said with a sick and twisted smile on his face.

------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------- -------

Jazz was sitting in Danny's room and looking at several items around the room that he had once held dear. Things like pictures with his friends, several games that he never got around to playing or beating, pictures with his family, and even a few souvenirs from his ghost hunting days. He also had a physics paper that had a giant "B" written on it with Lancer's remarks, _Nice job, Fenton._

Jazz let out a small smile. "If that's what means a lot to you, little brother."

She was about to leave the room until she saw one last thing. It appeared to be a crumpled up piece of paper with some writing on it. After studying it for a few seconds, Jazz saw it turned out to be a full fledged letter.

After reading it, Jazz lost her breath. She dropped the letter and watched it slowly drift back onto his bed.

"Danny…" she whispered. "Why couldn't you show this letter to her?..."

------------------------------------- ---------------------------- -------------------------------------

"Get ready to be eliminated from the biggest game of your life!" Jerel yelled as he started throwing punches over and over at Tucker.

Tucker had to dodge them all by moving at a lightning quick speed, but this actually gave Danny and Sam and advantage. Now that Jerel was focusing all his attention on smashing Tucker in the face with his boxing glove, all they had to do was attack him when he was too occupied.

With a nod of the head, Danny and Sam fired two blasts of energy at Jerel's head.

Jerel screamed as he fell to the floor after the energy beams hit him in the head. He slowly got up and looked at Danny and Sam.

"Fan interference!" he yelled. "Looks like I'm gonna have to throw you kids out!"

Jerel stormed over to Sam surprisingly fast and picked her up. Like he was pitching a baseball, he threw her against the wall. She hit the solid concrete wall hard and slumped.

"Oh, missed the strike zone on that one," Jerel said as he turned to Danny. "Maybe I'll have to try again!"

Jerel ran over to Danny and prepared to throw him the same way, but just as he was about to clasp his hands around Danny's throat, a zapping sound was heard and Jerel was on the ground again.

Tucker was standing there holding his fingers out. He had apparently just fired a few rays of electricity at Jerel, and not a moment too soon.

"Thanks, Tuck," Danny quickly said as he ran over to Jerel lying on the ground.

"Don't mention it."

Danny picked up Jerel by the neck and held him right above him. "I hope the refs aren't watching," Danny snidely remarked. He flew as high up as he could go and promptly told Sam and Tucker to fire at him.

But before they could, Jerel held out both of his hands and formed several darts in each hand. He started throwing the darts as hard and as quickly as he could at Danny's friends, and they both had to make a run for it.

Sam and Tucker ran all the way around the room as the darts came within inches of going into their heads.

Danny thought Jerel had run out of darts, but it seemed as if he had one left. Using that one last dart, he thrust it behind him and pushed it right into Danny's stomach.

Danny let out a moan of pain and dropped Jerel out of reflex. Jerel plummeted onto the ground, but he got up a little while after.

"You kids know I could have been in the Olympics?" he asked with a wicked look on his face. "I would have completely dominated in three areas: shot-put…"

Jerel held out one of his hands and a large and obviously heavy brown ball appeared in it.

"…javelin…" Jerel continued, and a javelin appeared right beside him. "…and the discus!"

A discus appeared right at Jerel's feet. "And you kids are about to see _why_ I could have won!"

_Oh, boy…_Danny thought to himself.

Jerel took the shot-put and started spinning around like a ghostly tornado. He went so fast it went to the extent where none of the three teenagers could clearly see him anymore. Then, when he was still spinning, he abruptly released the shot put and sent it hurtling at one of the three kids.

Tucker saw it was coming right for him. He ducked out of the way just in time. The shot-put went right through the wall behind him and still managed to go through _another_ wall after that.

"Aww…what a shame!" Jerel said as he stopped spinning around. "Guess I missed. But that's okay, because there's still the discus!"

Jerel picked up the heavy Frisbee-like item in front of him and started spinning around again. And like before, he threw it with such force while spinning it could have easily taken someone's head right off their shoulders if they got hit with it.

Sam was the target this time. Her reflexes weren't sharp enough, so she instead put up a purple ectoplasmic shield in front of herself and the discus bounced right off of it.

"Oh, you must think you're so tough, huh?" Jerel said, sneering. "Don't worry, kids. We still got that…Gah!"

Jerel suddenly screamed and groaned in pain. He looked down and saw something sharp going right through him. It went in through his back but was coming out through the front. He slowly turned around and saw Danny standing right behind him, holding the spear like object going right through him.

"…the javelin?" Danny asked, finishing Jerel's sentence for him.

Jerel stammered and breathed very heavily. He looked like he was going to throw up at any second, mostly due to the excruciating pain he was in.

Danny smiled evilly as he saw the pain he was making Jerel go through. After a long while, Danny yanked the javelin out of Jerel and threw it to the side. The javelin disappeared in a puff of smoke as he threw it.

Jerel got down on one knee and had to support himself with both of his hands. The same black smoke started coming from him that came from the other three Deathbringers that died before him.

"EeaaarrrrRRRRGHHHH!" Jerel yelled. "You may have beat me in Game Seven, but as those Red Sox fans used to say…JUST WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!"

Upon making that sports-related threat, Jerel completely finished vaporizing. The last traces of smoke dissolving from him whisked away into the air and became invisible.

"Looks like there won't _be_ a next season for you, Jerel," Danny said with his arms crossed.

Danny looked at his two friends, who both looked wiped out from the fight. Danny smiled and ran over to them.

"Hey, you guys okay?" he asked, smiling surprisingly pleasantly for just getting into a dangerous fight, nearly losing his life and ending it by impaling the enemy.

"Yeah, no sweat," Sam said, trying hard to not complain.

"Whew," Tucker said. "Man, that was close! Oh well, at least all the Deathbringers are dead now."

"_Almost_ all of them," Danny said. "We've still got Arkov to finish off."

"Yeah," Sam said. "Do you think he's here now?"

"I'm sure of it," Danny said. "And I remember this place from the last time I was here. That door Jerel was standing in front of was the corridor to his throne room."

"Really?" Tucker said. "So all we gotta do is go through that door and he'll be there?"

"Pretty much."

"Great!" Sam said. "Let's go and finish Arkov off for good!"

Meanwhile, in Arkov's throne room, Arkov was indeed standing there, like he was waiting for something.

He was staring at the large screens on the wall in his throne room where the Deathbringers' statuses were. When he had walked in there, Claude, Noreen and Gippy had a transparent crimson screening over their photo, showing that they had been defeated.

Then, Arkov watched as Jerel's screen and picture, which were in full color, slowly started turning to the same change of red, meaning he had been defeated.

Arkov understood it all. His picture was the only one on the wall that hadn't turned blood red, meaning he was the only Deathbringer who wasn't dead. He knew Danny and his friends had succeeded at killing Jerel.

Then Jerel's lips opened and revealed a sick and twisted smile. He looked at Jerel's red portrait on the wall and let out an evil, plotting laugh. His laugh got louder and louder as he fully processed that Jerel died.


	24. A Final Confrontation

People were slowly pouring into the cathedral and filling up seats. Danny's parents and his sister were sitting in a pew closest to the altar. Lying on the altar were pictures of him that brought back tearful memories just looking at them.

"Danny…" Jazz once again whispered under her breath. "Why couldn't you have just told her?"

"Jazz?" Maddie asked, trying to hold back her emotions but not exactly doing a stellar job at it, "Did you say something?"

"It's nothing, mom," Jazz quietly said as she stared at all the pictures of her brother. It was very painful for her. After being rescued by him even after he "died", Jazz couldn't tell her parents that Danny was still partially alive. Because of that, she could never talk to him or see him again. It was almost worse than him being dead. She knew he was out there somewhere but she couldn't talk to him.

Lying right behind his pictures on the altar was the casket Danny was in. His body lay there with his hands crossed over his abdomen. He was dressed up in something that would make someone think he was going to a school dance. His dead face was completely neutral.

The Fentons sighed. They looked over to the pew opposite them and saw Sam and Tucker's parents were there. They were looking very spiffy for the service, but gave Jack and Maddie and Jazz a cold glare as if it were still their son's fault that their own children were killed.

"So, dad…" Jazz said. "Sam and Tucker's coffins are already at the cemetery where they're going to be buried, right?"

"That's right," Jack said completely emotionless.

"And after this service, Danny's going to go to the cemetery with them and get buried there at the same time as them, right?"

"Yes," Jack said once again.

"So…all three of them are going to be buried at the same time?"

"Yup," Jack said. "I'm sure that's the way Danny would have wanted it."

Jazz looked down at the floor. "Yeah…probably."

---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- -------------

Danny took a deep breath as he and his friends stared at the menacing door in front of them. The door led down the long corridor that eventually led to Arkov's Lair.

"This is it, guys," Danny said. "Arkov is the only member of the Deathbringers who hasn't been destroyed yet. So once we go in there and fight him, it'll turn out one way or the other: either we defeat him and stop his plan, or he destroys us and his plan succeeds and he'll have more power than any ghost ever dreamed of having."

Sam and Tucker exchanged nervous glances when Danny reminded them of that part.

"Either way, it'll be all over for us once this fight's finished," Danny said.

Danny looked at the nervous expressions on Sam and Tucker's faces. He knew how much they were worried about the fight that was about to break out. In fact, Danny didn't have a lot of confidence, either. The last time he fought Arkov, he lost in barely ten seconds and it cost him his life.

"You guys know that if Arkov gets you, you're going to spend the rest of eternity floating on the Plains of the Helpless Souls," Danny once again reminded. "I don't know about you two, but that's a fate I sure as heck don't want."

"Neither do we," Sam and Tucker said in unison.

"So I just want to tell you guys that it's not too late," Danny tried to say reasonably. "Remember that this isn't your problem. It's mine. You guys were just the bait and I was stupid enough to fall for it. So if you want to step out now, I won't hold it against you."

"Yeah, good thinking," Sam said. "Sorry Danny, but I've got to be logical. I'm not going on. Like you said: this is _your_ problem."

Danny closed his eyes and sadly nodded his head when he heard that Sam opted not to see it to the end with him.

Then Sam started laughing. "Aw, I was just kidding!" she insisted. "Of course I'll take Arkov on with you. Like you said: he was using me as bait, and that doesn't go too good with me."

Danny smiled and turned his attention to Tucker. "Well, Tuck? How about you? You with me for one more battle?"

"Hey, I'd be with you for one _hundred_ battles!" Tucker said.

Sam and Danny looked at each other before Sam finally said, "Okay, that was really corny."

Tucker's face dropped in irritation. "Er…fine! I'm with you!"

"Great," Danny said. "Time to finish Arkov off once and for all!"

"Yeah!" Sam and Tucker yelled in unison.

Danny turned to the giant door and opened it. They were greeted by the long, creepy corridor. There was nothing except the concrete one-way room that went several yards ahead to a small door opposite them. Danny, Sam and Tucker started running for the door. Danny grabbed the doorknob and turned to his friends. They were obviously scared, but they gave him a thumbs-up and smiled.

Danny gave them a quick nod, and then he opened up the door leading into Arkov's lair.

-------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- ------------------------

The chapel was still slowly filling up. It had only been about five minutes since the Fentons sat down, but it had felt like an eternity. (And the cold looks the Foleys and the Mansons were giving didn't help)

Jazz sighed until she got tapped on the shoulder by her mom. Jazz turned around to Maddie to see what she wanted.

"Jazz, do you have your speech ready?" Maddie asked.

Jazz forced a smile. "Yeah. I worked on it all of last night. I hope you like it."

"I'm sure I will," Maddie said, giving a sad smile.

They watched as more people continued coming into the chapel. Jazz didn't realize until several moments later that there was an organ playing a low, sad song the whole time. She couldn't tell if the one at the keys had just been playing on continuous song or if he had taken breaks between songs.

------------------------------------------------ --------------------------- ---------------------------

Danny opened up the door and saw Arkov standing there and grinning at the door like he was suspecting them.

"Arkov!" Danny hissed.

"Heh," he said. "I knew you'd make it."

"Really," Tucker said suspiciously. "How could you have known that?"

Arkov chuckled and pointed to the large portraits of the Deathbringers behind him. Danny shivered when he saw those pictures of the Deathbringers again, even though they were all dead except for Arkov.

"Once I saw that you had killed Jerel, I knew you guys would be coming for me. Well done. You've just proven yourselves predictable."

"Don't start gloating just yet," Danny threatened. "You may have beat me last time, but I was alone. Now I've got friends to back me up."

Arkov started chuckling again, making Danny and his two friends very nervous.

"My boy, what do you think this is?" Arkov asked, pointing to something that reminded Danny a lot of a photocopy machine, except it was tan and looked very high-tech.

"It's the machine that my Deathbringers made me where I can take the ectoplasma from dead ghosts and use it to enhance my own strength," Arkov explained. "And do you know what _that_ is?..."

Arkov pointed to the large, green mosaic that was sitting in a corner of the room. "That's the portal that's going to take me to the Plains of the Helpless Souls. But I needed one more piece of glass to fit into that small little patch right there in that corner," Arkov said, pointing to the one part of the mosaic not covered in glass.

Danny was growing sick of Arkov taunting him, but he didn't know what was preventing him from just lashing out and starting to attack.

"Even with the machine constructed and the portal 99.999 percent completed, it would have meant absolutely nothing without this," Arkov reminded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small piece of glass Danny's dad found in the Ghost Zone only a few days before.

There was definitely more tension in the room now. Sam and Tucker looked like they were about to fall apart for some reason.

"So now that you see my plan is about to succeed, I am asking you for the last time: do you wish to join me and be my three new Deathbringers? Or shall I have to destroy you."

"Neither!" Danny yelled. He put up his fists and got ready to start fighting.

Arkov sighed. "Why do I even bother? Oh well. I can't help it if the stuff they teach you kids at school about right and wrong is false."

Arkov held out his hand and the formed the scythe in it that he used to kill Danny in his human form. "Prepare to see what happens when you fight Arkov, leader of the Deathbringers!" the last surviving Deathbringer threatened.

Arkov jumped into the air and was floating and spinning his scythe around very quickly. He stopped after a little while and swooped down at Sam, just narrowly missing her head.

Sam jumped out of the way and landed hard on the floor. Arkov saw that she was down and he turned around so sharply and quickly that it was literally a "blink and you miss" situation.

When he was coming back down after just barely missing Sam to try striking her again, Tucker held out his hand and fired a few bolts of blue electricity from his fingertips.

The electricity hit Arkov and sent him back, but only a couple of feet. He saw Tucker recovering from making the attack and immediately went after him instead.

Arkov took his scythe and flew as high as he could without crashing into the ceiling. When he was as high as he could go, he swooped down again but landed right in front of Tucker. Less than half a second after he landed on the ground, he brought back his scythe and was getting ready to swing it at Tucker.

Danny tried to act quickly and fired a blast of energy at Arkov's feet. It worked and Arkov fell onto the ground, the scythe right next to him.

Seeing the scythe on the ground and out of Arkov's hands, Danny tried to run over to it and grab it so he could use the scythe to his own advantage.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Arkov yelled when he saw what Danny was trying to do.

Arkov held out his hand like he was grabbing at something invisible in the air and the scythe suddenly seemed to be responding as if it were remote controlled.

The scythe went into the air on its own and started swinging at Danny. Danny jumped out of the way and had to bend backwards like he was taking part in a limbo to dodge the scythe.

While Arkov was still on the ground, Sam ran over to him and got ready to blast him in the face with some of her Goth energy.

Arkov sprung up at the last moment and he held out his hand. An invisible vacuum seemed to pull the scythe back into his hand.

With the scythe back in his hand, Arkov turned and saw Danny and Tucker. Arkov started spinning the scythe around at a very quick speed (So fast anyone could barely see it) and he started laughing evilly to himself.

He abruptly stopped and took a vertical swing at the two teenagers. They jumped out of the way just in time and managed to miss the blade. The blade came crashing down into the floor and Danny and Tucker knew they had to take advantage of this moment while he had to pull the scythe out.

Tucker fired a few bolts of electricity from his hands and while they were still engulfing Arkov, he raised Arkov into the air with them.

Danny and Sam jumped back so they were staring at opposite sides of Arkov's head. They both started charging blasts of energy in their hands and released the blasts at the same time.

The blasts of energy hit Arkov's head at the same time; Danny's hit the front and Sam's hit the back. Arkov let out a giant scream of pain as the two blasts hit him simultaneously.

Tucker then stopped firing rays of electricity and Arkov fell to the ground. He slowly started getting up and clutched the scythe in his hand. But when he tried standing back up, the scythe disappeared in the same puff of black smoke that the other Deathbringers disappeared in when they were killed.

As that happened, Arkov let out a choking and moaning sound like he was about to die, and then he slowly slumped on the ground and stopped moving.

Sam, Danny and Tucker stared at Arkov's body, and then at each other in disbelief.

"W…we did it?" Tucker asked. "We won?"

"You know something, Tuck?" Sam asked. "I think we just may have."

"Whew," Danny said, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "I can now officially say you guys have been avenged. It just stinks we can't tell our families that, though."

"Yeah, I know," Tucker said sadly. "But come on, we just won. Let's go somewhere to celebrate. Waddaya say?"

"Sounds good to me," Sam said. "What about you, Danny? This is really _your_ victory."

"I guess we could go somewhere to have a party or something," Danny said, liking the idea.

The three teenagers started walking out of the room until a sound came and broke the silence. It sounded disturbingly familiar, and when they turned around to see where the sound was coming from, they saw part of Arkov twitch. Then the sound came to break the silence.

"_Heh heh heh heh heh…"_


	25. The Plains of the Helpless Souls

Hi everyone. Thank you very much for those reviews last chapter. Anyway, this will probably only apply to people like Christoph or Leppers. To both of you guys, or anyone else who's read my previous Danny Phantom stories: you may want to watch out for some familiar faces this chapter.

---------------- ------------------------------- -------------------------- -------------------------- --------------------------- ------  
"What the?"…Jazz asked as she sat in the pew and tried her best to endure her brother's memorial service. It was what she considered the most depressing and the saddest hour of her life. But she felt it was the least she could do. "What is _he_ doing here?"

Jazz stared in disbelief as she saw a familiar face walking up the altar and behind a podium to make a speech. It was none other than Lancer.

Lancer cleared his throat. He was dressed up in a formal looking outfit and actually looked like he had tried to make himself look nice for the occasion.

"Mr. Fenton was a student of mine," Lancer said, reading from a piece of paper he brought up with him. "He was never the brightest crayon in the box, but I know he had a good heart when it came down to it."

Jazz's eyes began watering. She never would imagine hearing this kind of praise about Danny from someone like Lancer.

"Yes, we had our quarrels and we had our disagreements. He would be very upset with how he did in my class and he would get very upset with me. But it was obvious he was trying very hard."

Maddie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was paying very close attention to Lancer's speech before Jack loudly whispered in her ear, _"He DID?!"_

"…Fenton was really a good student, and I admired him as one," Lancer continued, looking at random spots of his audience. "I knew that he could be a great student if he put his mind to it. Whether he actually did this is a different matter, but I could see the potential in him."

Lancer continued talking about how great of a student he knew Danny truly was. Even he seemed to be getting sad about what he was talking about.

"I think I've made my point Mr. Fenton was a great student," Lancer said. "I don't know what it was, but students like him don't come around too often. He's dead and he's never coming back, but now I think it's time I let everyone know what I really think of him…"

-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------

"What the?..." Danny said breathlessly.

He, Sam and Tucker were still in Arkov's lair after they won the battle against him. After giving Arkov simultaneous blasts to the head, the trio was sure they beat him. But now his body seemed to be moving.

"Heh heh heh heh heh…" Arkov repeated as he got up. He stood up was gripping part of his stomach. He seemed to be limping and struggling to stay up, but his malicious and his freaky look were still there.

"Arkov?" Danny yelled. "You're…"

"I won't fall so easily!" Arkov said. He was obviously in a lot of pain by the way he looked, and his voice made it sound like he had a very severe head cold and like he was about to pass out at any given moment.

"Really, then?" Tucker said. "How about you try fighting us again?"

Arkov started laughing as he slowly reached into one of his pockets. He pulled out the last piece he needed to complete the portal to the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

"You wanted this, right?" Arkov managed to croak out.

Danny's teeth were bared. He didn't know what Arkov was planning on doing, but he wanted nothing more than to lunge at him right now and grab the last piece of glass and destroy it.

Chuckling, Arkov went over to the portal and got ready to insert the last piece of glass into the one empty spot.

"Wait!" Danny yelled, reaching his arm out as if he were trying to grab something right in front of him.

Arkov slowly inserted the last piece into the mosaic. Danny had to make a dive now, or else the portal would open.

Danny made a long dive for Arkov, but it was too late. Arkov stepped out of the way just in time, causing Danny to harmlessly crash to the floor.

The giant portal suddenly began glowing so bright that Sam and Tucker thought they'd go blind looking at it. The light showed for several moments before it finally stopped with a loud sound that resembled a high pitched rumble.

When the light cleared, the portal was clearly no longer in the form of a mosaic. It now looked exactly like the portal to the ghost zone. It was green, but with a few swirls of tan in it.

Arkov looked back at the three teenagers and gave them a menacing look. Then, without saying anything, he stepped through the portal and into the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

"Wait!" Danny yelled.

But it was too late. Arkov had stumbled his way through the portal. He was now well out of ear shot, leaving Danny and his friends with only one option.

"We've gotta go after him!" Danny yelled confidently to his friends as he got up off the ground. "The real battle is just ahead!"

Sam sighed. "And I suppose there's going to be _another_ fight after that?"

Tucker scoffed. "Jeez, this guy's making the Miser Brothers look like the kind who'd go down without a fight," he remarked.

"Come on," Danny said. "Arkov is on his last leg and all his Deathbringers are dead. What else have we possibly got to worry about?"

Sam sighed. Then she followed Danny and Tucker as all three of them took a deep breath and walked through the portal and into the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

-------------------- ---------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------- -----------

"Danny certainly won't be leaving behind a legacy or too much inspiration," Lancer said as he continued his speech, ready to wrap it up soon. "He was never one to do anything exceptional or anything that would make him stand out…"

"_If you only knew the HALF of it…_" Jazz muttered under her breath.

"…but I do know what he _will _be leaving behind," Lancer said, apparently trying to draw his speech out as long as possible. "He'll leave behind friends. He'll leave behind family. And his future. Any hopes or dreams or ambitions the young boy have had are now gone."

There were several people sniffling or wiping their eyes in the pews. Lancer, however, seemed completely empty of any emotions.

"Class will not be the same without him," Lancer said. "I'll try not to sound mean, but he was fun to pick on and make jokes about during class. He was the "dumb kid" who you knew would not likely know the answer to a question and who was the one everyone would make fun of and laugh at when he stammered. But he'd usually accept the joke and laugh about it. He had a good sense of humor, and it's that sense of humor that we will all miss in his class."

Jazz didn't know what to make of Lancer's speech. Did he really everything he just said, or was he just trying to make himself look like a good guy? She didn't know.

Lancer stepped down from the altar and was walking back to his seat. But on the way back, he saw Jazz sitting in her pew with tears rolling down her face. He gave her a warm and gentle smile, and almost like he was reading her mind, she said to him, "I meant every single word of it."

Jazz stared back at him as she watched him proceed down the aisle.

------------------------------------- -------------------------------- --------------------- -------------

Danny, Sam and Tucker were just stepping out of the portal and found themselves on the Plains of the Helpless Souls. They were surprised about what it looked like, to say the least.

It definitely held true to the "Plains" part of its name. The entire place was nothing but one long, open stretch of land with no obstructions at all.

Tucker looked like he was about to be sick. "Oh my g…" he slowly muttered.

There were ghosts clearly floating all over the place. Well, they looked like ghost, anyway. But they were really nothing more than just molds of the ghost that matched their physical description perfectly, but they were also very translucent and barely had any color in them at all. The faces were low and seemed almost sad, but they were still completely neutral.

"Whoa," Danny said breathlessly. "This place is…depressing."

Indeed it was. The place was very depressing. Just looking at all the empty, emotionless ghost molds just floating around seemed to drain any feelings or emotion from the kids.

"So, if we die, we have to spend forever looking like these guys?" Tucker said, making sure he understood everything.

"Yeah," Danny said. "Look, I told you guys, if you want to turn back now, you still can. The portal back to the Deathbringer's Lair is right there."

"Danny, don't start again, all right?" Sam scolded. "We're here and we're going to finish this."

"Yeah!" Tucker said.

Danny smiled sadly, but then looked very concerned about something. He started turning his head as if he were looking for something.

"Hey, what happened to Arkov?" Danny asked.

Sam and Tucker suddenly looked very nervous when Danny asked the question as well. They looked around, but he was nowhere in sight. That disturbed them. A lot.

"I don't know," Sam said.

Danny made a small grunting sound as he looked down at the pale tan dirt. There was nothing in sight except for the empty ectoplasmic molds of all the deceased ghosts and the never ending light tan dirt stretching as far as the eye could see.

Danny looked up at the sky. They seemed to be in a white void or something. There was only white up above them. But it didn't seem bright and it didn't seem to reflect anything at all. Just the fact they were standing on a plain in a white abyss was disturbing.

Then a few more things caught Danny's attention. There were two particularly interesting looking molds. One was the mold of a ghost who looked like a high commanding position in some military field. He would have been a tall, dark figure with a black cape and dark red armor. For eyes, he only had two white slits.

Next to that mold of the ghost was the other one that caught Danny's attention. He looked at the other mold. It was only shorter and his armor wouldn't be as dark. The first mold was also easily about six inches taller than the one Danny was looking at now.

Danny gave a slight smirk. "You see what happens when you get too cocky and decide you don't need your second in command anymore, Myrus? And don't worry, Cobaark, he only gave you what I was going to give to you, anyway."

Normally, Danny would have felt stupid talking to the mold of a dead ghost, but he didn't care for some reason.

Danny's shock grew even more when he turned around and saw another familiar face. The dead ghost mold was wearing a very dark cape. He was a little tall, but was very skinny. His hands were very bony, and Danny would almost see the joints in the knuckles moving if the figure moved his fingers. But the most disturbing part of all was definitely the face. The person's head looked almost exactly like a skull, but the white was actually skin. His empty frown showed rows of uneven, ghostly white teeth.

Once again, Danny gave an almost cocky smile. "I'll bet you wish you were back up in your cloud, huh?" he asked the dead ghost, happy he wasn't receiving an answer. "I thought he said I'd never have to put up with you again after all those years. But then, you weren't forgotten or gone since 1368. Why stop now, right?"

Danny was finally ready to stop talking to dead ghost molds until he saw one more familiar pair. The first ghost apparently had pale green skin, but looked very human. He had an eyeglass over his left eye and had a black cape tied around him. He looked like he was wearing very expensive clothes.

Next to that mold was the mold of a woman ghost. She seemed beautiful and had very pale skin. She had a thin structure and was wearing very soft, light clothes.

Danny almost started laughing, but he smiled instead. "You see what happens when you want revenge, Horrick? You and your loved ones _die_."

"Danny, what are you doing?" Sam yelled.

Danny suddenly snapped awake and stopped looking at the dead ghost molds hovering right in front of them. (Although they were fairly hard to ignore)

"Uh…sorry," Danny said. "I just saw a couple ghosts I recognized. That's all."

"Hey! Look!" Tucker yelled.

Tucker was pointing to a row of ghosts floating in close proximity to one another, but still retained the same lifeless look.

Danny slowly went over to all of them. "Guys, these ghosts are Claude, Gippy, Noreen and Jerel," he whispered.

"All the dead Deathbringers…" Sam said. "I guess Arkov knew what he was talking about then."

"Uh, am I the only one creeped out that if Arkov's plan works, then those dead ghost friends of his are actually going to make him insanely powerful?" Tucker spoke up.

"I know, I know," Danny said. "But that's why we're going to stop him, right?"

"Yeah!" Sam and Tucker yelled.

"All right!" Danny said in a decisive manner. "Let's find him and get this over with!"


	26. The Guardian

Despite looking around the Plains of the Helpless Souls, Arkov was nowhere to be found. Since there was nothing except a long, open plain in sight with translucent ghost molds floating around, there was no place to hide.

"Where'd Arkov go?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Tucker said. "Maybe he got some invisible power or something."

"I don't think so…" Danny said uneasily.

The trio continued searching for a while, but they saw no sign of Arkov anywhere. Did he go back in through the portal? No, that wouldn't make sense-why would he want to go back into his lair when he had opened up the pathway to his destination?

"Uh…am I the only one who feels uneasy about all this?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean?" Danny inquired.

"I mean…something doesn't feel quite right," Sam said suspiciously.

"Of course something isn't right," Tucker said. "We're here on the Plains of the Helpless Souls and Arkov is nowhere to be found."

"No, not that," Sam said awkwardly. "It feels almost like…like someone's watching us."

Danny and Tucker didn't say anything. They looked at each other and were silently pondering whether Sam was just going crazy or if her concerns were legitimate.

_**THUMP!**_

Danny, Sam and Tucker jumped.

"What was _that_?!" Tucker yelled.

"I don't know," Danny said, sounding a little worried. "It sounded like something big."

_**THUMP! THUMP!**_

"Okay, we are _definitely_ not alone here," Danny said, getting on his guard and getting ready to fight whatever was coming his way.

"Uh…guys?..." Sam said, looking in the opposite direction. She looked like she saw what was coming their way…

----------------------------------------------- ------------------------- --------------------- -----------

At the memorial service, people were still making speeches. Jazz was just getting sadder and sadder as people continued talking about how awful it was for Danny and his friends to have been killed only days apart from one another.

_Danny…_Jazz thought to herself. _I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time when you were just doing your job and trying to protect us from all the ghosts. I know that won't bring you back now, but I just wanted you to know…_

"Jazz?" Maddie asked.

Jazz snapped awake. "Uh…yeah, mom?"

"You okay, dear?" Maddie asked.

"I'm fine. Thanks," Jazz said in an uncaring way. She took a deep breath and looked down at the floor.

--------------------------- ------------------------- ----------------------- --------------------------

A giant figure was hovering over the three kids. He looked like a giant troll from all the fairy tales they were read when they were younger. He was easily twice their size and he had giant muscles that would be able to crush them with little trouble.

Danny, Sam and Tucker were standing there and shivering at the site of the beast in front of them. He looked at the three kids like they were intruders.

"Why are you here?!" the figure bellowed.

The three kids looked at each other and exchanged glances. They didn't know who would be the one to talk to the giant being (Whatever it was) but they didn't want it to be themselves.

"Well?!"

Danny gulped.

"We're here to stop someone from using the power of all these dead ghosts to make himself super powerful," Danny explained, taking the leadership role. "He was just here and we're looking for him."

"Leave!" the figure yelled.

"Hey, who do you think you are, ordering us around!" Tucker said, trying to sound cool and tough. (Although all it took was once "SILENCE!" for Tucker to start whimpering like a baby)

"I will tell you who I am, if that's your question," the figure said. "I am the Guardian of the Plains of the Helpless Souls. No one is allowed here."

"But there was already a ghost here!" Danny insisted. "He looked wounded, and he was wearing dark armor and he…"

"Enough!" the figure screamed, causing all three kids to jump. "I have seen no such ghost that you speak of, and nor should I have! No ghosts should be here except for the ones who have been destroyed! I am here to enforce that! Now leave!"

"But we can't leave!" Danny once again tried to reason. "If we leave here, then Arkov's going to be more powerful than even I can imagine and we'll have some real trouble then."

The Guardian didn't look like he was buying Danny's story. He put up his hands like he was getting ready to karate chop all of them.

"If you do not leave the Plains of the Helpless Souls as a living ghost…" the Guardian started. Blood red ectoplasmic fire appeared on his fists. "Then I will ensure you stay here for all eternity as a dead one!"

--------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ ---------------------------

The memorial service was slowly dragging on, and Jazz was having a hard time being able to tolerate it all. She didn't know why, but the grief was just too much.

She assumed it was because it was her brother she was grieving for and for all the circumstances that he died. He was young. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was a really good person when it came down to it. He had a life. He had friends. He had a purpose. (And she assumed he died performing that purpose)

She continued sighing as she looked around and saw other people reacting to the speeches. She saw teachers and administrators from school. She saw students from school and she saw a lot of people she didn't even know. (And she was able to safely bet that Danny probably wouldn't know them either)

But maybe the most depressing part about it was that she knew she would never see Danny again after today. Well, his human part, anyway.

As she had confirmed many times today, they were going to have the memorial service with Danny's open casket on the altar, and then after that his casket would be sent to the cemetery where he would be buried. Sam and Tucker's caskets would already be there and ready to go in, but all three of them would be buried at the same time. After all, that's what the parents thought the kids would have wanted if they all died at the same time.

Yes, that was the worst part of it. Jazz would only see Danny's body one more time before she had to say good-bye to his human side forever. And she doubted she would be able to see him in his ghost half too frequently with how obsessive her parents were.

"Well, Jazz, looks like you're an only child again for the first time in over fourteen years," Jack said. "At least you'll get more attention."

"Oh, goody," Jazz said sarcastically.

----------------------------- --------------------- ------------------------------ ---------------

The Guardian to the Plains of the Helpless Souls was mounting over the three teenagers. He had himself completely fired up. The blood red glow around his fists had now extended to over his entire body. He looked like he would be impossible to beat.

"Prepare to die!" the Guardian threatened.

The guardian threw both of his arms in the air and immediately three crimson lightning bolds slammed down on the ground where the three friends were standing. They all managed to jump out of the way just in time and avoided getting blown to bits after just one attack.

Danny and Sam started flying. They got right next to each other and held out both of their hands to fire a blast at him at the same time.

But when they both fired their blasts, the Guardian put up an ectoplasmic shield around him that absorbed the blast the same way a sponge absorbs water.

The Guardian replied to his attack by jumping into the air and he started floating. He looked at Danny and Sam and opened his mouth wide and a giant red ball started forming inside his mouth. It didn't take a degree in nuclear physics for Danny and Sam to know what was about to happen.

"Get out of the way!" Danny yelled.

He and Sam jumped out of the way just as the ball erupted into a giant beam of energy that would have vaporized both of them in an instant if they had been hit.

_Geez…if this guy is THIS powerful, what's Arkov going to be like if his plan goes through?_ Danny thought to himself. _No, can't think about that now. Right now I have to get rid of this guy!_

Tucker tried his luck with some of his attacks. He started firing several bolts of electricity (that paled in comparison in a huge way to the Guardian's attacks) His pity rays of electricity managed to hit the Guardian in the foot which quickly brought him to the ground, but he was up again before Tucker could even consider making another attack.

The Guardian ran over to Tucker and picked him up. Tucker yelped in fear when he knew he was going to be squashed like a big in the Guardian's giant grip.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" came a voice from a little while away.

The Guardian turned around and promptly got blasted in the eye by Danny, who had just made the comment.

The Guardian started roaring surprisingly loud and dropped Tucker. Tucker started running away as fast as he could until he was a safe distance away. From there, he started firing more and more electricity at the Guardian.

The Guardian definitely looked like Tucker's lightning bolts were causing some damage, but it looked like the Guardian could also easily go through the pain.

------------------------------- ------------------------------- ------------------------ ---------------

It was the longest hour of Jazz's life. Easily. And it was also the most depressing hour of her life as well. Throughout the entire day, her parents, as well as herself, were trying to show her the silver lining to this very dark cloud.

But no matter how hard she or anyone else tried, there was nothing good or positive she could say about it. Danny hadn't lived a full life, nor did he live a life that he was wishing would just end. He wouldn't be better off dead, and no one else would be, either. (Save the ghosts who her incompetent father frequently let into the real world by accident)

Jazz racked her brain before she finally came up with one small thing she could be grateful for.

Sitting in her pew and drowning out the organs and the people singing in the backgrounds, Jazz could finally see something that would make it less painful on her. _At least after today, I'll never have to worry about this again…_

But not even that offered her much reassurance. She could never remember a time she was this sad in her whole life.

Even her silver lining could not prevent the dark black cloud from making a downpour on her.

---------------------------- ------------------------------------- ---------------------- ----------------

Trying to fight its way through Tucker's lightning bolts, the Guardian continued to trudge on towards him and hoped attack him and finish him in one swift attack.

"Hey!" Danny called. "You forget about us?!"

The Guardian turned around and saw Sam and Danny floating a while behind him. In the blink of an eye, the two teenaged ghosts had split up and were now on opposite sides of him.

"Tucker!" Sam yelled. "Don't stop firing!"

Tucker nodded his head, showing that he heard her. He used every bit of energy he had to concentrate on his lightning. He fired it with so much force that he was starting to sweat very quickly and looked like he was about to collapse.

"You're doing great, Tuck!" Danny yelled, trying his best to encourage his friend.

The Guardian seemed to be losing a lot of his stamina against Tucker's never-ending assault. There were several times when he tried attacking, but he could never find enough strength while still trying to sustain the blast.

"All right," Danny said. He was on the Guardian's left and Sam was on the Guardian's right. "You ready, Sam?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Okay!" Danny yelled. "Let's hit him with everything we've got!"


	27. His True Intentions

Getting their strongest attack charged up, Danny and Sam fired their blasts of energy at the Guardian while Tucker struggled to continue holding it off.

"All right, you ready?" Danny yelled. "Fire!"

Using every single ounce of strength they had in their ectoplasmic bodies, Sam and Danny fired a long and hard blast at the Guardian.

The Guardian groaned in pain for a very long time before Sam and Danny and Tucker could no longer last when firing a blast.

But they didn't have to fire it anymore. The Guardian's head looked horribly deformed after being assaulted for so long with blasts of energy that it now looked completely destroyed.

Then, like the giant it was, it lost all footing and it fell backwards and landed hard on its back. Then it slowly started dissolving the way the Deathbringers did when they were killed.

When the Guardian was completely gone, Danny, Sam and Tucker looked at each other and took a deep breath.

"Whoa," Danny said. "That guy wasn't too fun. Imagine how much of a pain Arkov would be if he grew that powerful."

"Danny, don't worry so much," Tucker said. "Arkov's way too weak after the butt whooping we gave him that if we saw him here he'd be a pushover."

"If you say so…" Danny said.

------------------------- ---------------------------- ------------------------------ ---------------

Jazz could not believe how slow the memorial service was going. It felt like it was taking forever for everyone to go up there and say a few words on Danny's behalf. But she tried to think of all the reasons they _should_ be talking about him, considering it was practically the last thing they'd ever be able to say to him.

Jazz sighed as she sat back in her pew. She was starting to feel cramps from sitting on the uncomfortable wooden benches for so long, but she tried to be as respectful as possible. It looked like things were finally starting to wrap up when the priest went behind the microphone at the podium.

"At this time, I would like to thank everyone who came to speak on behalf of young Daniel Fenton today," the priest said, occasionally looking up to pass glances at the audience. "He was only fourteen years old, and it is very sad to see someone so young and so spirited die at such an untimely moment."

Jazz sighed, this time with a bit more exasperation and annoyance. It looked like she had another long speech ahead of her.

------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- ------------------------- ---------

Danny, Sam and Tucker were just finishing up their conversation until they heard the sound of a slight chuckle behind them. They started looking around for where it came from, and it wasn't much of a surprise when they saw who it was.

"Arkov!" Danny yelled.

Arkov looked like he belonged in a hospital. He was really limping to stand up and his chuckle made it sound like he was deathly ill. He was shaking pretty violently and he looked like he was about to collapse at any given moment.

"I must thank all three of you," he said in a way that made it sound like he was dying. "I thought my Deathbringers would do the work for me, but it seems you already have."

"What are you talking about?" Danny demanded, sounding concerned.

"I knew all about the Guardian here," Arkov explained. "I knew that he would try and stop me if I tried to come onto the Plains of the Helpless Souls and attempt to put my plan into motion. So I hired four of the most powerful, most hateful and most vengeful ghosts I could find and recruited them and called them my Deathbringers."

"Quit lying," Danny countered. "You were using them to help build that machine and to find the pieces to make the portal that would take you here!"

Arkov started laughing again. It was only then that Danny realized the machine Arkov's Deathbringers had been working on for so long was right behind them, and it looked fired up and ready to be put to use.

"You really think I couldn't have done all that on my own?" Arkov asked, still sounding like an old person about to die. (Danny and his friends must have really beat him up badly if he was sounding that awful) "Sure, it would have been a pain doing it all on my own, but I could have easily done it."

"What are you trying to say?" Danny hissed.

Arkov gave Danny a sick smile. "As you may recall, a few nights ago when me and my other living Deathbringers tried to break into your house once Gippy saw your father had the last piece of the mosaic that we had been looking for such a long time for, you and I had that battle. Of course, I won without much trouble and killed you only a few seconds into the fight."

Danny became very tense. Sam and Tucker seemed to be getting a little nervous as well.

"But I neglected to take one thing into account: that you're half ghost. When I realized you weren't completely dead, I then thought up another plan. I knew you'd be desperate for revenge, so I used my other Deathbringers as bait in a test."

"Bait?" Danny yelled. "Test? What the heck are you talking about?"

"Without any human interference, your ghost powers must have been extraordinarily powerful, so I made sure my Deathbringers would fight you at some point. Beating them was a test to see if you were as strong as I thought you were. And indeed I was correct."

Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"When I saw Jerel's picture turn red in my throne room, that's when I knew you'd be a better candidate for defeating the Guardian. I knew you must have been powerful if you could take down all four of my Deathbringers, so I used you instead. You killed the Guardian, and for that, I thank you."

Danny's eyes widened and he almost started snarling. "You were going to use the Deathbringers to fight off the Guardian and then kill them when they were finished fighting the Guardian if they weren't already dead, weren't you?! So you could get the power and control all for yourself, right?!"

"You are a very smart boy," Arkov complimented. "Much smarter than that dweeb I overshadowed gave you credit for."

"And let me guess," Danny said, "Once you saw how powerful I was, you planned on me coming here and have to beat the Guardian, and then you'd finish me in my weakened state and then use that machine to make yourself powerful, right?"

"Right again," Arkov said. "That's why I wanted you to join the Deathbringers. Either way, you would have ended up dead, and either way you would have ended up doing exactly what I wanted you to. Although I must confess, you did it in a way I didn't expect."

"Well, your plan backfired!" Danny yelled. "If I had been all alone, then your plan probably worked. But guess what? I got my friends here with me. It's because of them that I was able to finish off the other two Deathbringers and the Guardian. And you know what?"

"We're gonna give you exactly what we gave that ugly old woman, that sports freak and the big guy!" Tucker said, clenching his fist a cocky grin on his face.

"I think not," Arkov said surprisingly casually. "Because look what I brought here!"

Arkov slammed his hand on the machine that his Deathbringers had been working on to be able to take the ectoplasma from dead ghosts on the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

"You've done exactly what I wanted you to. You got rid of the Guardian. You've eliminated my Deathbringers and saved me the trouble of doing it. Your father even made it possible for me to be here in the first place," Arkov taunted.

"You won't get away with this!" Danny threatened as he clenched his fist.

"What can you do?!" Arkov said very loudly. "Look at all three of you! You're exhausted and barely survived the fight with the Guardian. And look what I'm about to do!"

Arkov hit a button on the machine and it immediately started making sounds like a bomb about to detonate. Something that sounded like a very loud vacuum cleaner started buzzing through the empty air.

As soon as this started, all the empty ectoplasmic molds of the dead ghosts started getting sucked towards the machine and drifted into Arkov. After a long while, Arkov fell on his knees as the dead ghosts continued drifting into him. He seemed to get a good chuckle when he saw that the dead molds of all four of his former Deathbringers were getting sucked into him.

"AhhhhhhhhHHHHHAAAA!" Arkov yelled as the dead souls continued flowing into him. He fell on his knees and started shaking very violent. He almost looked like he was about to explode.

"I can _FEEL_ it!" Arkov gasped breathlessly. "I can feel the power welling up within me!"

"Arkov?" Danny asked, almost starting to feel concerned for him.

"EeeeaAAARRRGHHH!' Arkov yelled. Like he was the Incredible Hulk, he shot up and was standing upright again. He hit the machine with so much force behind him that he knocked the machine back and broke it.

Arkov continued screaming as he started growing bigger and bigger. His biceps and all other muscles on his started bulging and became enormous.

Danny, Sam and Tucker stared in wide eyes and disbelief when they saw how enormous Arkov was becoming.

---------------------------- ---------------------- -------------------- ----------------- -----------------

Jazz got a huge breath of relief when the priest finally finished his never ending speech.

"Once again, our deepest condolences to the family of young Daniel Fenton. Let us keep them in our thoughts and hope they can get past this devastating chapter in their lives."

The priest said his last lines before finally saying, "Let us go in peace."

"_Yes!"_ Jazz thought to herself. _"It's finally over!"_

"And family members of the victim, I encourage you to stay," the priest said with a smile on his face.

Jazz's eyes widened. Groaning, she slumped back in her pew.

--------------- -------------------------------- ------------------------------- -------------------------

Arkov was growing larger and larger until he finally stopped growing. Now he was easily three times the size of either of the kids height wise and was over six times wider than either of them. He looked like he was made completely of muscle and power.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Arkov laughed in an almost demonic tone. "Thank you for all you've done to see my plan succeeds."

"Don't mention it," Danny sarcastically mumbled.

"I won't have to mention it!" Arkov yelled gleefully. "Once I finish you three, the world shall be mine!"

"Oh, yeah?" Danny said. He put up his fists and they started glowing green. "Well, we're not going to let that happen, are we, guys?!"

"No way," Tucker said, getting more electricity dancing on the tips of his fingertips. "We've come this far. We ain't giving up now!"

"Yeah," Sam said. Dark purple clouds started forming around her. "No one uses me OR my friends and gets away with it!"

Arkov started chuckling again.

It was almost impossible for Danny to believe, but he had actually _helped_ Arkov succeed in his plans to become powerful. All this time, his Deathbringers were nothing more than pawns to do his bidding.

Claude, Noreen, Jerel and Gippy weren't meant for anything other than to go to the Plains of the Helpless Souls and be destroyed by the Guardian. And if they somehow survived the fight, Arkov would have obliterated them with his new found power.

Danny would have never expected that even Arkov would have come up with a plot that nasty or that deceiving. He would have never thought that Arkov was just using his Deathbringers all along to actually do the hard work for him so he could get all the rewards.

"I'm really going to make you pay now!" Danny hissed. He turned back to Sam and Tucker. "Guys! Get ready!"


	28. The Decisive Battle

Jazz and her family were the only ones left in the church. Everyone else had said good bye to one another and now the place was completely deserted, save the Fentons and the priest.

"I am so sorry for your son," the priest said in a sympathetic tone.

"Yeah," Jack said uneasily. "He was a good kid. A bit crazy, but a good kid."

The priest nodded and looked at Jazz. He gave a small smile. "And you must be his older sister," he tried to say pleasantly.

"Yeah," Jazz said, trying to sound as polite as she could.

"I'm sure you are feeling great sorrow for the loss of your brother," the priest mourned.

"Yeah, I definitely am," Jazz said. She walked over to the casket where Danny's body lay, looking surprisingly comfortable.

Danny's hands were still crossed and his face still looked completely neutral, yet peaceful. Although Sam and Tucker's caskets right beside him were closed, she was sure they looked the same way.

Jazz sighed as she grimaced at Danny's body in the casket. In just a matter of minutes, the three caskets would be driven off to the cemetery where they would be buried, never to be seen again.

------------------------- ------------------ --------------------- ------------------- ------------------

The fight was on between Danny and his friends against the monstrous sized version of Arkov after he had gotten all his power.

Once again, Danny's trail of thought had a small space in his mind for analyzing it all. Everything that had happened to him and to everyone since the moment Sam and Tucker were murdered had been leading up to this very battle.

Sam and Tucker getting murdered…Mist stumbling upon him…learning about the Deathbringers…his Saturday detention with Lancer…finding all five Deathbringers in the circuit room during Saturday detention…all the fights with the Deathbringers…getting his human half murdered by Arkov…the revelation that there was not only one, but two cloaked figures, and that they were Sam and Tucker all along…having the last piece to the mosaic taken from them…invading the Deathbringers' Lair…fighting the Guardian…all of these events were leading up to this one fight that would end the whole thing, for better or worse.

"Get ready for this!" Arkov hissed. He balled both of his fists up and bent over and slammed his fists into the ground.

As a result, giant seismic waves started quickly spreading out across the plains faster than anyone would normally be able to dodge.

Luckily, all three teenagers were able to jump over the seismic waves to avoid being thrown far away by the sheer force of them.

Just as the kids landed, though, Arkov tried the same move again. After slamming his fists into the ground and creating more seismic waves, the kids had to jump yet again.

"Nice reflexes, kids!" Arkov said in his demonic and threatening voice. "But now you're dead!"

Arkov jumped into the air and actually started floating. He looked much bigger than normal due to how high he was, and when he was high enough up to get a lot of momentum, he started swooping down at Sam.

Sam jumped out of the way just before she would have been caught, but as a result, she fell on the ground hard.

"Sam!" Tucker yelled running over to her. But as he got to her, he turned to the side and saw Arkov's enormous hand coming right at him.

Tucker didn't have time to dodge and got sent flying high into the air.

"Tucker!" Danny yelled.

Danny started flying as high and as fast as he could go and caught Tucker while he was still rising.

Tucker's eyes were squeezed shut, but when he opened them, he was relieved to see he wasn't dead.

"Hey, thanks man," Tucker said, smiling at Danny.

"Don't mention it."

Back on the ground, Sam tried to get up, but as she got up, she saw Arkov was staring at her maliciously. He opened up his mouth and started charging a giant mass of energy in it and got ready to fire it at her.

"Say good night!" he threatened.

Arkov was just about to fire until a blast hit him right in the eye and temporarily blinded. He fell backwards from shock and released the blast way off target as it went sailing towards Danny and Tucker. Both of them dodged it and kept their lives by doing so.

"Heh," Danny snickered. "Come on, Arkov. You're this powered up and you can't even hit us? Very impressive," he sarcastically taunted.

Arkov scowled. "All right, kids! You've made me mad!"

----------------- ----------------- ------------------- --------------------- --------------- -----------

"Okay, time to close 'em up," the priest said a while later.

A few church workers came over to Danny's casket and closed it. Then they grabbed it by the handles and started carrying it down the aisle and out of the church.

"That's headed for the cemetery now, right?" Jazz asked, not taking her eyes off the workers as her brother's casket slowly disappeared from view out the door.

"That's right," the priest said surprisingly normally.

Jazz made a loud sigh of depression. _I knew this moment would come…_ Jazz thought to herself. _The last time I can say good-bye to him…_

Jazz continued staring sadly at the casket as it disappeared from her sight.

"Come on, Jazz," Maddie said, tugging at her daughter's arm like she was a little girl. "The Mansons and the Foleys are already waiting at the cemetery. Their kids need to be buried too, you know."

_Geez, could you have possibly made it any more depressing?_ Jazz thought to herself.

------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ----------------------------------

Arkov was now furious now. He was firing blast after blast of energy (which was probably about six times as thick as any blast of energy Danny could even hope to fire), but the kids kept their agility as their priority and managed to miss each and every single one of them.

"Heh, for leader of the Deathbringers, your aim sure is lousy," Danny criticized.

"Oh, really?" Arkov asked. "How about this?"

Arkov held out his two hands palm-side out and pointed them at the ground. He fired a very quick white blast at the ground. The blast promptly turned to a trail of the pure white energy and it headed straight for the kids.

They managed to jump out of the way just in time, but Arkov kept firing more and more energy at them. (The closest call was when Sam felt some of her hairs get scorched by the white blast)

"Eeeaaarrrrggh…!" Arkov yelled. "No more fooling around!"

Arkov took a jump backwards and held out his hands and fired a surprisingly large blast at all three kids.

Danny, Sam and Tucker were too tired to really move or jump out of the way any more, so they did the only thing they could: they fired their strongest blasts all at the same time.

Danny's ectoplasmic energy, Sam's dark energy and Tucker's electric bolts were enough to parry Arkov's blast. Their blasts collided and the two sides struggled to push their blast over to their enemy.

Every time Arkov pushed harder to try to make his blast of energy the strongest, Danny, Sam and Tucker's strength output increased. They all realized how dangerous this whole thing was to them and they weren't going to let anything go wrong.

The kids somehow emerged victorious when Arkov lost a bit of control and he fired so much energy his body was starting to wear down. The kids took this opportunity to give it their all. It was, after all, now-or-never time.

Using their strongest surges of energy, the kids managed to push Arkov backwards and not only have their blasts hit him, but his own blast bounced back and hit him as well.

Arkov screamed in pain and his demonic cry echoed throughout the empty plains. He fell backwards and all the energy that made up his body started disappearing. He began to whittle away until all the power he had just accumulated only a short while before was gone.

Arkov had now been reduced to the form he took after getting beat by Danny and his friends inside his lair. He was kneeling on one knee and had a look of disbelief written all over his face.

He was breathing heavily as he looked up at the three teenagers and they all smirked when they saw how beaten and how exhausted he looked. Arkov looked like he was ready to keel over right then and there. But Danny, Sam and Tucker didn't want that to happen…yet.

"Hey guys, what say we fire one more blast for this battle?" Danny asked.

"We're in," Sam and Tucker said in unison.

All three kids started charging up their strongest attacks one last time in their hands. They gave Arkov the evil smirk he had given them so often and seemed to enjoy watching the look of horror on his face.

"See ya, Arkov," Danny finally said.

The three kids released their attacks and hit Arkov right in the chest. He got blown back as if a wrecking ball had just smashed into him going fifty miles an hour.

Arkov fell on the ground on his back and he looked like his entire body had been distorted and twisted out of shape. But he didn't moan. He didn't move. He didn't breathe.

In just a few moments, Arkov's body began to disappear like the other Deathbringers before him.

Danny, Sam and Tucker watched with wide eyes and gleeful smiles as they saw their enemy die in front of them. They watched as the last bit of ectoplasmic energy disappeared from his body.

"Whoa…" Danny said in awe.

When Arkov was all gone, a weird thing started happening. Some sort of energy was forming into a ball right beside him. He looked over and the ball of energy started flexing itself into some shape.

When the ball finished stretching itself, the energy mold resembled Arkov, the newest resident to the Plains of the Helpless Souls.

Then there was quiet for a while. Danny, Sam and Tucker were completely breathless. It was over.

After a long while, Danny let out a huge sigh of relief and sat down. He looked exhausted, like he just had to endure the toughest hours of his life. It was all over. Every last bit of revenge in his body melted away, practically leaving him as nothing but an empty shell.

Danny abruptly sat down on the ground, but was patted on the shoulders by Sam and Tucker.

"It's okay, Danny," Tucker said, smiling.

"You did good."

Danny didn't say anything. He didn't know what _to_ say. He just continued looking at the ground, hearing and looking at nothing. He was in the most depressing place he had ever been in, and yet he had just won a vicious battle that he shouldn't have even lived to see. Why was did he feel so depressed.

Tucker would soon provide the remedy. Danny looked up and saw Tucker was smiling as if he was really happy about something.

"What are _you_ smiling about?" Danny asked.

-------------------- -------------------- --------------------- ---------------------- ------------------

Jazz saw the cars in front of her get loaded up with the caskets on their way to cemetery. She let out yet another loud sigh when she saw her brother's casket get loaded. This whole day felt so long to her and she knew it was still going to be a long day, even after the burial.

"Jazz?" Maddie asked, turning around from the passenger's seat and looking at her daughter in the back seat. "I'm really proud of you today."

"Thanks, mom," Jazz said, trying to smile pleasantly. "I've really tried."

Maddie put her hand on her daughter's knee. "I'm sure Danny would have been proud of you, too."

Jazz didn't say anything. She just looked ahead and saw the cars with the caskets finally pulling out of the parking lot.

"_Danny…"_ Jazz whispered to herself.

The Fentons' own car started to move as Jack started driving after the cars and to the cemetery for the burial.


	29. Together Again

NOTE: I am uploading two chapters at on the same day for a change. So you may not have read chapter 28 yet if you're reading this for the first time. This takes place AFTER the fight with Arkov, so if you have not read that part, flip back to Chapter 28. Thanks.

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"Seriously Tuck, what's making you smile so much?" Danny asked.

"You know, this isn't awful," Tucker said, still smiling.

Danny and Sam passed each other confused looks. Sam broke the silence by looking up at Tucker and asking, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's really wrong now?" Tucker asked as if he were in a utopia.

"What's wrong?" Danny asked lightly. "Oh, not much…except for…oh yeah, WE'RE DEAD!"

"So?" Tucker asked, sounding surprisingly carefree.

"So…we're dead," Sam said. "That's not a good thing, Tucker."

"What's so awful about it?" Tucker asked.

Danny and Sam looked at each other again. They were still very confused about what Tucker was talking about.

-------------------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------- -------------------

Jazz sighed as she continued looking at the road signs pass by her. One sign really hit her hard when it said the cemetery was only about six miles away. It wouldn't be long at all before she said good-bye to Danny for the last time.

"Mom?" Jazz asked, finally speaking up.

"Yes, Jazz?" Maddie asked, turning around to look at her daughter in the back seat.

Jazz actually didn't know what she wanted to say, and she really didn't feel like talking about how it didn't feel right to say good-bye to Danny this early. She really wasn't ready.

"It's nothing," Jazz said, looking out the window as the trees and the road and other cars seemed to race past them.

Maddie gave Jazz an "are you okay?" look, but quickly resumed looking ahead and getting to the cemetery.

It wasn't long after when they finally got to the cemetery. Jazz got out of the car and glumly stood away from the car and her parents as they got out.

Jazz watched as the three caskets were unloaded and moved over to the graves where they would sit forever, hopefully in peace.

--------------------------------------- ---------------------------- -------------------------------

"Yeah…" Danny said after a while of Tucker explaining. "Maybe being dead won't be so bad if it's like this."

"My point exactly," Tucker said. "I mean, it's just us, right?"

"No school, no homework, no chores…" Sam started, actually smiling a little.

"No more bullies, no more parents, no more waking up at the crack of dawn…and if a ghost comes around causes trouble, I'll have you guys to help me out now, right?" Danny stated.

"Of course," Sam said.

"Anything for you, man," Tucker said.

For the first time in a long while, Danny felt completely relaxed. He felt like he had nothing to worry about now. He thought that if he could just live as a ghost without any problems (aside from the occasional fight with another ghost) then maybe he'd be able to enjoy himself for once.

All three of them were caught up in the moment. For a small instant, all of them were happy and had nothing to worry about at all. They were the happiest they could ever remember being. They all had each other and they had no more things to worry about.

Life was going to be great from here on out for them.

Then, Danny's smile suddenly faded. He looked like he was really concerned about something.

"What is it, Danny?" Sam asked.

"Well, I'm just remembering something," Danny said really lowly, looking at the ground. "When this whole thing got started, I was told by Mist something about ghosts that I already knew, but…"

"What is it?" Tucker said. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, at the very beginning of all this, Mist told me that in order to become a ghost, someone has to have a strong will or a strong desire to do something when they die," Danny explained.

Sam and Tucker weren't sure where Danny was getting this.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Tucker asked.

"You see…I'm an exception because I'm already part ghost," Danny said. "So when I die, I was going to have a ghost anyway. But you guys didn't have that; you had to have a strong will or a strong urge to do something in order to become a ghost."

Sam and Tucker looked like they were a little concerned. They now thought they knew what Danny was getting it.

"So…what was it?" Danny asked. "What did you guys really want or really want to do that kept you from being able to just rest in peace if you got killed?"

"Well, I really wanted to win the science fair!" Tucker said brightly. He pulled his voice distorter out of his pocket. "I really thought I could win with this!"

Tucker put the voice distorter up to his mouth and started talking into it. _"Don't you think I could have won with this?"_ he asked, his voice totally changing into something that sounded deeper and raspier.

"Yeah, I guess I…wait, was that the voice you had when you were passing yourself off as that cloaked Deathbringer?" Danny asked.

"Yeah," Tucker said. "You'd have recognized our voices in a heartbeat, so I thought I'd use this to disguise it. It worked rather well, if I do say so myself."

"Heh," Danny snickered. "I was wondering how you got your voice to sound that like."

Danny turned to Sam who looked really nervous.

"Well, Sam, how about you?" Danny asked. "What did you want to do that kept your spirit from resting?"

"Actually…" Sam said very uneasily, "It was something I kinda wanted to tell you. I've wanted to tell you this for a long time, but I never actually found the guts to."

Danny started listening very carefully to what Sam wanted to say.

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Jazz was staring at the open caskets of Sam, Danny and Tucker. Their graves were right next to each other, which was (once again) what the parents thought the kids would like the best.

Sam's casket was the first to be closed. Sam's parents were standing over the body in the casket as they said their final, tearful goodbyes to their daughter. When they said they were ready, the casket closed up, creating a loud and final sound as the wood came into contact with the main part of the coffin.

Danny came next. Jack and Maddie hovered over their son's open body in the casket and said their final goodbyes and how they were really proud of him and how they were going to miss him so much.

"Jazz?" the priest asked, who had accompanied them to the burial, "Is there something you'd like to say?"

"Yeah," Jazz said. She walked over to her brother in his casket.

"Danny…" she started. "I just want you to know that I'm going to miss you very much and I'll always be here for you. Always. You were a great little brother-the best I could have asked for. We may have had our agreements and disagreements over the years, but I love you and I always will."

Jazz didn't know what else to say. There was so much more she wanted to say, but she thought it was all summarized in what she had just said.

"Is that all?" the priest asked.

"Yeah," Jazz boldly said.

The priest nodded and went over to Danny's casket and closed it. Jazz watched as the last bit of Danny was separated from her sight by the wooden door on the casket.

"Good-bye…Danny," Jazz said softly.

"Mr. and Mrs. Foley?" the priest said, smiling as he turned to Tucker's parents. "Your turn.

------------------------- ------------------------- --------------------- ---------------------- --------

"Really?" Danny asked. "What did you want to tell me?

Sam gulped and she looked like she wasn't ready to tell Danny what she wanted to tell him, which was the only thing that kept her ghost from not existing.

"You see…I…" Sam stuttered.

"Hey, what's up with the machine?" Tucker asked.

Danny and Sam looked up and saw the machine Arkov had used to extract all the power from the dead ghosts was starting to act strangely.

"What the?..." Danny asked. "I thought Arkov broke it…"

"Guess not," Sam said.

Danny got up and went over to the machine and started inspecting it. The machine was shaking and was making a few random beeps and other clicking sounds.

"What's this?" Danny asked as he looked at a small knob.

"Danny, what is it?" Sam asked.

"It looks like this thing got beat pretty bad and…whoa, whoa, whoa, what's this?"

Danny looked at a knob and saw it was set to ABSORB.

"Is this for absorbing power?" Danny asked. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He looked like he had a great idea.

"Wait a minute!" Danny yelled. "This thing can _take_ life from ghosts, right?" he said excitedly as he turned to Sam and Tucker.

"Yeah, that's what it's for. Why?" Tucker asked.

"There's a reverse knob on it!" Danny yelled.

"What?" Sam asked. "Why would they put a reverse knob there?"

"It must be in case one of them got carried away with absorbing power. I guess the other Deathbringers didn't trust Arkov with this too much, either," Danny said. "In case he went too out of control, they'd have the ability to take the power _from_ him!"

"Danny, what are you getting so excited about?" Tucker asked, starting to smile.

"Guys, don't you see?!" Danny yelled even louder with more excitement. "If this thing has the power to _take_ life from a ghost then…guys, get over here, quick!"

"What?" Sam asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Just get over here! Come on, hurry!" Danny yelled, beckoning them to come to him.

Sam and Tucker ran over to Danny and grabbed onto his hand. Danny started fiddling with the machine and set everything on REVERSE that could possibly go to that setting.

When everything was set, Danny hit the START button.

Instantly, the machine started up, but it seemed to be acting very different now. As Danny, Sam and Tucker were touching it, they all started to glow the same blinding shade of white that Arkov's blasts of energy were.

"Danny, what's going on?" Tucker yelled, starting to get a little scared.

"It's putting life back _into_ us!" Danny yelled with excitement rising in every syllable. "It's restoring us!"

Suddenly, the bright light consumed all three of them, and they all disappeared in the blink of an eye.

--------------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------- -----------------------

"…and so we bid farewell to Tucker Foley," the priest said sorrowfully as they closed the lid on his casket. Now all three caskets were closed and ready to be buried.

But just as Tucker's casket closed, a bright white light was seen coming from inside of it.

"What the…?" the priest asked.

"_Hey! Someone open up this thing!"_ came a voice from inside Tucker's casket.

Everyone's faces dropped and their eyes widened more than ever. They flipped the casket open and saw Tucker in there, alive and smiling at all of them.

"Hey! Did ya miss me?" he asked.

Tucker's parents shrieked with glee and happiness as they pulled their son out of the casket. They all started giving him hugs. Then something happened.

"_Hey! Don't forget us!" _a voice called from Danny's casket.

Jazz gasped. She ran over to it and opened it up and Danny was alive in his as well.

"DANNY!" she yelled, tears running down her face.

Jack and Maddie ran over to their son as well and helped him out of his casket. When he was back on his two feet again, they all gave each other a warm hug that seemed to last forever.

Hoping for the best, Sam's parents ran over to her casket and opened it up. They opened it up and Sam was in there, but she shielded herself.

"Hey! Don't let that sun in here!" she said, trying to keep the sun out of her eyes.

"Sam!" they both yelled. They pulled her out of the casket and hugged her as well.

All six parents were happier than they had ever been. They were hugging each other non stop and the smiles never disappeared from their faces for even a split second.

Jazz ran over to Danny and gave him a big hug. She gripped him so hard he thought she was going to break them in half.

"Yeah, yeah, I love you, too," Danny plainly yet lovingly said as he put his arms around her.

After that, Danny went over to Sam and Tucker and they all gave each other high fives and hugged one another as well.

This was the happiest moment that any of them had ever experienced. The hugs and the tears didn't stop for a very long time.

The priest was in disbelief, but he was smiling as well. (As well as very, very confused)

The kids knew how they were back to life, but the parents didn't. And they honestly didn't care.

"Guess it was a mistake all along?" Tucker said, trying to explain how they came back to life.

The families still continued hugging and embracing each other. All the tension between the Mansons, the Foleys and the Fentons was gone. The families were finally at peace again.

For five minutes there was nothing except hugs and smiles. Finally, it stopped and everyone just looked at one another.

"This calls for a celebration!" Jack said.

As if expecting something, all the parents started following him back to his car like he was taking them somewhere.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Tucker yelled as he ran after the parents.

Sam started walking after them as well before Danny stopped her.

"Wait, Sam," he called as he put his arm out.

"What?" Sam asked as she turned around. She walked back over to Danny until they were only inches from each other's face. "What is it?"

"What was it that you wanted to tell me?" Danny asked.

**THE END**

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There you have it. There's Deathbringers as it comes to its close. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. It was fun to write and makes for one more story under my belt.

Thank you very much to all my reviewers. You guys really gave me the motivation to want to continue and I owe all my motivation to you guys. Thank you for all your reviews. While it came to a disappointing total, the feedback you guys gave me felt really good to read.

Now I think I'll launch into my obligatory lecture about how I came up with the idea for this story. Back in September I thought about a story that would really grip everyone's attention after how I was able to do it with Revelations and Revenge. But I didn't have any ideas, so I thought about having Sam and Tucker get killed off at the very beginning and have the story take off from there.

And around August, I watched a parody video on the internet that made fun of a group of villains that I liked a lot, and I thought to myself, _Hmmm, instead of having a bunch of separate villains, why not have them all working within one group towards a common goal?_ And then I decided to give all the members of the group (It didn't take me long at all to come up with the name "The Deathbringers") their own unique personality. I realized I had made almost every single villain in any one of my DP stories a scary and intimidating looking figure, and if you ask me, when you do that over and over, it loses its charm. So I instead decided to make the bad guys different (except Arkov-he stayed true to the way I normally made villains) to make them more interesting.

I just continued planning everything through, but in July I saw the ending to a story that looked like it would have a "kind of" happy ending, but at the end one last twist happened that made the ending very happy.

From then on, I thought, "Hey, why not make the ending like that? What's wrong with having a very happy ending every once in a while?" So like with Revelations and Revenge, I used the work-backwards method where I started with where I wanted the story to end and I tried to make everything leading up to how I wanted it to end.

I decided that to do that, I'd have Danny, Sam and Tucker all dead. That was where I got inspired to "kill" Danny off around the middle and have them all be together in death and look like it was a happy ending, but then make one last thing to make it one of the happiest endings I've written.

Well, I think that's enough ranting now. Now for some more serious news. For a lot of you this probably won't matter too much, but to my long time reviewers, (particularly Leppers and Christoph) this might be a bit of a shocker. I'm done with fanfictions.

Please understand guys. Don't get me wrong. I've had a lot of fun writing here for fifteen and a half months and realizing the kind of stories I'm capable of writing. These have been the longest and most processed stories I've ever written, and I'm proud of them. But then I became upset when I truly realized that I was making these with somebody else's characters. That was an upsetting thought. I wanted to go back to writing original stories, and writing The End of Time in October made me remember the fun days of writing with my own characters.

But that wasn't the main driving force. To be perfectly honest, I've had my mind made up since August that I was going to be done with fanfictions. I was going to leave after writing Tales of Tiberia, but I remembered that I promised everyone back in May I'd write one more Danny Phantom story. So, here it is. I didn't want to say anything about me leaving, though, out of fear that maybe you guys wouldn't be able to enjoy the stories as much if you knew they'd be over.

But I'm not done writing at all. In fact, thanks to fanfiction and you guys, I'm just getting started. I'm just going to a different site, is all. (that site is I'll now be writing for that and I'll be keeping my pen name of Velkan the Impaler. I look forward to writing there, which hopefully will be very soon. (Although first I've got to get an idea formed, and trust me, I have a LOT of them)

Once again, thank you very much to all you guys for reviewing my story and thank you to Leppers and Christoph for sticking with me for over six months. If you guys don't review my stories on fictionpress (I have no idea when the first one will go up) then I want you guys to know I'll miss your reviews and that I'm very grateful for them.

Don't think I haven't had fun writing Deathbringers, because I have. It's been a lot of fun, but now it's time to move on.

Thank you so much everyone.

Yours truly,

Velkan the Impaler.

_Saturday, December 16, 2006. 6:45 p.m. EST_


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